The Office of the Police Complaints Commission (OPCC) in British Columbia says it’s investigating the Vancouver police officers for neglect of duty because of how they handled the case of Chelsea Poorman.
The family said they welcome the investigation.
“For myself I just want them to realize that everybody should be treated equally, especially the families who are going through the loss going through the agony of not knowing where their loved ones are,” said Sheila Poorman, Chelsea’s mother.
Poorman, 24, had moved to Vancouver with her sister and mother from Saskatchewan. She vanished in early September 2020, after going out with her sister in Vancouver. Her body wasn’t discovered for a year and a half, in April 2022, behind an unoccupied mansion in Vancouver’s Shaughnessy neighbourhood.
Family and advocates spent hours searching and putting up posters. Sheila filed a missing persons report with Vancouver police in 2021. She said they didn’t treat her daughter’s disappearance seriously at first.
“The police officers didn’t do a diligent job investigating at first,” she said. “They didn’t do a news press release right away. They didn’t put Chelsea’s picture up on the missing persons report, the fact that they didn’t accept the fact that I told them that Chelsea was a vulnerable person.”
Sheila said police didn’t review surveillance video from surrounding businesses where she was last seen for weeks. When they did, some had been recorded over or erased, she said. Sheila said it took police more than a week to post Chelsea’s photo and three months to accept that she was a vulnerable person.
Eventually, Sheila filed a complaint with the OPCC in 2021. According to the organization, the Vancouver police will not be involved in the investigation.
“To ensure that there was an arms-length investigation into the matter at this point in time the New Westminster police have been tasked with carrying out this investigation. Our office has been providing civilian oversight of that investigation and in addition the OPCC determined that it was in the public interest to appoint a retired judge to review the investigation once it has been completed,” said Andrea Spindler, Deputy Commissioner of the OPCC.
Spindler said if the officers involved are found to have neglected their duty, they could be given various penalties including suspension without pay, re-training or termination. Criminal charges can also be recommended by the OPCC.
According to police, Chelsea’s cause of death may never be known because of the advanced decomposition state of her remains – but they have ruled that her death was not suspicious. The case is still open.
Sheila doesn’t agree with the police assessment. She said Chelsea was disabled, walked with a limp and couldn’t fully extend her arm because of a car collision.
“Its taken a huge toll on myself and my daughters mentally just not knowing what happened, not having information. There is still no closure to her case to what happened,” she said. -30-
