NOV 11/2024 Coroner rules the death of Samantha Sims Somerville of Victoria B.C a homicide?
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1396104132176751
Loving and Remembering Samantha krysia -FIGHT FOR JUSTICE & TRUTH | Facebook
UPDATE: February 24/2025
Samantha’s mum Tracy sims had this to say today”
My daughter’s death is a homicide. Correct the Coroners job is not to determine FAULT or BLAME, re-investigate, re-interview, speak to Brooklyn or I, submit a RCC to Crown Council, suggest charges for Crown to access and approve or not. It is not Crowns responsibility to do same, above. THE INVESTIGATORS involved need to re-investigate or provide a full file disclosure (RCC) to Crown Council supported with facts, evidence, and a copy of the coroner’s report and new findings. Saying we “consulted” with Crown is not ENOUGH, it means nothing? When did you???
VIMCUU stated state they do not investigate “suspicious deaths” these days, so when actually did VIC PD (officers involved) ACTUALLY meet with you?
I ask because this is a HOMICIDE! Administering a noxious thing/substance to Samantha and Brooklyn. Brooklyn JUST survived, Samantha my only child 18, died. In a 400sqft condo with a handful of KNOWN PEOPLE/CRIMINALS, men in their 20’s and 30’s.
As far as I am aware from after writing to Crown, this has never been done, and until they do there is no rule for Crown. Considering the Coroners new finding, and what is stated below, (what happened to Samantha and Brooklyn) I am in disbelief and fear that this is not being acted on?Waiting for the OPCC complaint findings which will be reviewed by retired judge – then going from there is not good enough? It’s appalling!
WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING IN HERE? Really?
Please take care of your loved ones, the vulnerable, the victims suffering this justice system and SPEAK to your children in blunt terms, educate them.
UPDATE: December 26/2024
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2797981953865679
A RETIRED JUDGE WILL REVIEW.
A statement from Samantha’s mom Tracy.
Hello all, whilst I have been processing new information and updates on this tragic ongoing nightmare, I have had health issues and needed to focus on so many other things at this difficult time of year. I wanted to update you on the newest, if you do not get to see the news. People are listening and care, progress is moving more swiftly, and I am hopeful for Samantha and Brooklyn, what else can I be? I am so desperate for this to be over so as my hole focus is on rebuilding my strength, life and doing everything I can to make a difference and help as many as I am able to through this tragic event.
My daughter Samantha and her friend Brooklyn were lured to a condo by an older female where a small group of older men (Criminals, known to the police, more charges and convictions since this fateful night) who were in their 20’s and 30’s. They were masked with bandanas or other face coverings and glasses referring to them selves with Different aliases. Neither Samantha or Brooklyn knew any of these men, and shortly after arriving – both girls my daughter Samantha and Brooklyn were lethally drugged with GHB and other sedatives, referred to as “roofies”
Samantha my one and o my daughter and child, 18 years young was mishandled. Moved around and left. Samantha died a s a result. It is too difficult and painful to say what Samantha fully went through in her last hours. I am sure I need not to either. I have dedicated my life loosing much and many along the way whilst fighting for the truth, which we now know, justice, awareness and change.
UPDATE: December 1/2024
As quickly as Chief ManAk publicly announced that Sammy’s homicide investigation was being turned over to Vancouver Island Integrated Homicide Unit (VIMCUU),
VIMCUU announced that they would not be pursuing Sammy’s file. WTF is going on here? Not once did they reach out to Sammy’s mother Tracy. No request for a meeting, not even a phone call to acknowledge they had reviewed the file and made the decision not to go forward. Where is the compassion to the victim’s family in all this? It’s as if these police agencies don’t give a rat’s ass about the trauma that the families have to endure after the loss of a loved one.
What goes through the minds of these cops who investigate these heinous crimes. Just another dead girl? What was she doing at that party? I am starting to really believe that cops in Victoria have no respect for women, our daughters, our loved ones. The inadequate investigation in Sammy’s case and other cases where women have suffered sexual assault, assault, or murder is proof we are dealing with a legal system that no longer works. Police chiefs who are quick to defend their officers even when they know that their officers screwed up royally. Sammy’s possessions destroyed, text messages that were relevant to the case gone, and the DNA. All gone.
The cops know the name of the girl who encouraged Sammy to go to that party, have they spoken with her? They know who the men who were present at the party? Have they spoken with them? They know who owned that 400 sq. ft condo, and they know who administered the drugs to Samantha and her friend? The Victoria Police are now saying they do not investigate suspicious deaths!!! WTH, this is no suspicious death, this is a homicide. A murder committed by men who have previous convictions for trafficking in narcotics, assaulting women etc. Now, by their actions, the Victoria Police and VIMCUU have declared these men innocent of any wrongdoing. Without a doubt these guys are laughing at the system knowing they have once again got away with a serious crime.
THIS IS MURDER! Do the right thing and charge the men who left these two young girls to die.
UPATE Nov 22/2024
Published Nov. 21, 2024 1:53 p.m.
Major crime investigators reviewing death of Victoria teen, which coroner reclassified as homicide
Major crime investigators reviewing death of Victoria teen | CTV News
Vancouver Island’s major crime unit is investigating the case of a Victoria teenager whose death was initially ruled an accidental overdose but has since been reclassified by coroners as a homicide. At a committee of the whole meeting on Thursday, Victoria Police Chief Del Manak said his department has referred the case of Samantha Sims-Somerville to the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit.
“We feel that if the coroners service has reclassified it to a homicide, that we should have — out of an abundance of caution — have somebody else independently outside of the Victoria Police Department investigators have a look at this,” Chief Manak said in an interview with CTV News following Thursday’s meeting.
SAMANTHA SIMS SOMERVILLE DIED ON APRIL 10/2021. Her friend brooklyn was left for dead but survived.
NOTE: This story is the first time that a seemingly unrelated injustice has been posted on this website, but Samantha and Brooklyn’s story needs to be told.
What happened to Sammy Krysia?
Just this month Samantha’s mother received a full and final report from The Coroners office, ruling Samantha’s death a “HOMICIDE”..
Tracy Sims says, “I have tonight received Justice (in part). I have fought so very hard with every agency within this system, including the coroner who re-opened the investigation in February of this year. I fought hard to be heard that this was not “An Accidental Overdose”, and they listened. Since February my fight became more intense and more painful and exhausting, but I did not give up and fought every single day. Please know that this is in BLACK AND WHITE supported by a letter head signed by The Chief Coroner, that Samantha’s death is classified as HOMICIDE
Coroner re-classifies B.C. teenagers death as homicide | CTV News
Teen’s death from alcohol and date-rape drug deemed a homicide – BC News – Castanet.net
Charges won’t proceed in Victoria teen’s death – Victoria Times Colonist
THE VICTORIA POLICE CALLED THE DEATH OF SAMANTHA sims AN ACCIDENTAL OVERDOSE.
But this was no accidental overdose, this was a murder and the cops knew it. 18-year-old Samantha Sim and her friend Brooklyn had been drugged and left for dead in a home in Victoria, but the Victoria Police were calling it an accidental overdose. Samantha’s friend Brooklyn Friese survived the ordeal and today is telling her story. This is an unbelievable injustice, not only to Samantha & Brooklyn, but to the girl’s families, and to the community that trust in the police to do their job. Either this investigation was one big cover-up, or the police just didn’t give a damn. Maybe in their minds this was just another overdose. If this is the case, there should be a major investigation into the cops were handling this case. These girls were victims, led to their fate and into the hands of men who had previous criminal records and were well known to the police.
Tracy Sims is a young Victoria mother who has spent nearly three years fighting for justice for her daughter Samantha.
When the Victoria Police announced that they were closing Samantha & Brooklyn’s case, Tracy decided to take on an investigation of her own. She knew her daughter better than anyone, and Tracy knew damn well that this was no “accidental overdose”. Samantha and Brooklyn had been externally administered a lethal combination of GHB, the date rape drug, sedatives and alcohol which entered their system quickly. Tracy was now on a mission and there would be nothing stopping her until she got to the truth about what happened that fateful night. Tracy started investigating the day Sammy died and pretty much every day after that – gathering notes, statements, pictures, names, extremely important names and information. The Victoria Police had failed Samantha and Brooklyn.
Tracy says the Victoria Police did not provide the CORONER with all the information she had provided police, just that they were ruling it an accidental overdose. She gave it to them when she appealed the decision after the case was closed. Which should have been left open and investigated further.
Tracy admits that this is more than she ever anticipated or wanted to take on, but at every place she went, hoping that justice would be served and the truth told, but she was stonewalled by one thing or another. Nevertheless, it made this already determined woman stronger than ever. She had been silenced for so long for legal reasons and other complications but no longer was this brave woman going to be silenced. She has been through hell & back, treated badly by the cops and at times feared for her life because of the people she had dared to take on.
Tracy is fighting different parts of the Freedom of Information Act, to gain access to information that has been withheld from her.
This mother is a victim of police cruelty, she has every right to know what went on in her daughter’s investigation, and if the police are refusing to give it up, someone inside that police department is involved in one major cover-up. Someone should be looking into whether a cop may have ties to one of the men who drugged these girls, or whether there is a cop on the take who prefers money in his pocket rather than justice for these two young victims of a heinous crime.
The OPCC accepted Tracy Sims’ complaint against the officers at Victoria Police, and it was appointed to an Investigator at the Victoria Police Department. What the hell! Would this not be considered a conflict of major proportion. So, Tracy appeals the decision of the OPCC and fought to have it investigated by another Police Department. The complaint now lies with another Police department off the island. It is being thoroughly investigated. The conclusion was they believe a crime has been committed, based on the “new” evidence, the withheld, hidden and destroyed evidence by the police that Tracy herself provided the CVAP. CVAP recognized this as a crime, OPCC accepted the complaint so they must have taken the complaint seriously.
Tracy said, “A child is dead, it was a HOMICIDE reported by the most important agency in all of this “THE CORONER”, who did a full and thorough investigation – once having the info I provided, which was what I had given the Police and a more.
There is new info and evidence. It is police responsibility to apply for the coroner’s full report, investigation and findings, and then arrest or investigate. But they have not? not as far as I know. Suspicious? I think so. Worrying? yes. Scary absolutely. I have done all the work for them, so get up and give us Justice!!! Restore faith in the public! what the F are you doing!!! Can you imagine how this is affecting other victims? or the vulnerable.
Tracy has made it perfectly clear that the Victoria Police did little if anything to investigate her daughter’s death.
Tracy says that her grievance complaint is with certain Victoria Police Department members. But she also makes it clear that there are many police within that department she admires and who have been kind and helpful, compassionate and caring. The department/precinct itself has caused her and the survivor Brooklyn a lot of harm.
Not only that, but the police also ignored critical/important evidence that she had given to them. They continually lied to her, misled her, watched her suffer, and finally destroyed all her daughter’s belongings, including clothes and jewelry. They also wiped clean the phone Samantha had, which was her Tracy’s husband’s phone. Though the phone was given back, it had been wiped clean and factory reset. The phone did not have a telephone number associated with it.
She did not give the police permission to take or keep Samantha’s phone, and the police had no warrant or permission to take the phone. In July 2021, the Victoria police asked for Samantha’s password. Why did they wait so long to ask for Samantha’s password? Were they looking on hiding critical evidence that was on that phone in order to hide their inadequate investigation. What were the police so afraid of? What were they hiding?
To ask for the password at the very last minute just prior to closing the case could mean that they wanted to be sure there was nothing on Samantha’s phone that could make them look bad. Then shortly after the case was closed. Samantha’s mom was given a quick meeting with the police, then it was over as quickly as it began. All Samantha’s surviving friend Brooklyn got from the police was a text message.
IN SEPTEMBER 2022, THE VICTORIA POLICE CLOSED THEIR INVESTIGATION.
AND DESTROYED ALL THE EVIDENCE INCLUDING SAMANTHA’S DNA!
WHY?
FEBRUARY 29/2024
Tracy Sims Grieve believeS HER 18-YEAR-OLD daughtER WASA A VICTIM OF homicide, and she has fought for years to have the case reopened.
Tracy was in shock when she received an email from the B.C. Coroner’s service in February informing her it would reopen an investigation into the death of her daughter. What was rushing through her mind when she received that call was “Finally someone is listening to me. My daughter’s death does matter. She is important”. Victoria initially told Tracy that they believed a crime had been committed because there were two victims. Samantha’s friend Brooklyn Friese had also been rushed to the hospital from the same party and was put on life support but survived a near-fatal overdose of GHP and Rohypnol. The doctor in the ICU that night told Tracy Sims he suspected foul play.
CORONER’S SERVICE MARCH 5, 2024
Tracy Sims, that you for your letter of February 29, 2024. I have had an opportunity to carefully review your concerns as well as the coroner’s services investigation into the death of your daughter Samantha Sims Somerville. Based on my review and new evidence that was not available at the time of completion, I have determined that the investigation into Samantha’s death will be re-opened.
November 1/2024
Times Colonist with some more of the story written today.
Crown will not be revisiting the previous decision. So now it’s homicide which supports the private information Tracy Sims swore in.
“Stay of charges on the criminals that took my daughter? Why is that exactly? Protected by Victoria Police Department but not elsewhere? This case MUST be investigated by another agency with non-bias members. A precinct that is not protecting criminals for whatever reason. Sammy’s truth has been told and now others need to do their job.”
HEARTFELT WORDS FROM SAMANTHA’S MOTHER TRACY SIMS
Tell me why two young girls would go to a place willingly or knowingly and decide to take GHB, and sedatives with alcohol, in a shady place with all grown men in their 20’s and 30’s with face masks on, bandanas, and other face coverings. Naming themselves with different aliases. Then decide it would be a really good idea or fun to be the only two people there, (Samantha and Brooklyn) to take such cocktails “again” knowingly or willingly, to sedate themselves, drug themselves with the date rape drug, and in such lethal amounts moments after arriving??? nearly killing them both?
Samantha my daughter was left for hours whilst they got frightened and made a plan, just as Brooklyn was. By the time 911 was called it was too late for my daughter Sammy. The lethal amounts of GHB were so high that they were still detectable in Samantha’s toxicology reports 6-9 hours later. Does anyone know just how much GHB that would have been? I do? I’ve done the math and understood the components of GHB, its life span and how it is metabolized. GHB is metabolized and out of the system by half within 30-40 minutes, then rapidly more so thereafter.
Samantha’s blood alcohol limit was below the legal limit! tell me? Two young girls, one a minor, in the condo of a convicted drug trafficker in his 30’s and other bad people/criminals. The girls did not know any of these men, were taken there under false pretenses, a different story of “a few friends to chill”. The one guy there, had harassed my daughter months before she had died using a different name on FB messenger. He had an arm length list of criminal charges, prior and since, including sexual assault on a minor, (under 16). This death was not an accidental overdose. Both Samantha and Brooklyn were innocent in all of this! I have fought for Sammy’s truth since day one. She was drugged with unimaginable lethal amounts of GHB with other things in a cocktail, without her knowing in a tiny apartment with approx. 5 older men in their 20’s and 30’s.
The homeowner of this 400 sq. ft. condo was a convicted drug trafficker. When they knew they had gone too far, they left Sammy and Brooklyn to die. Brooklyn just made it. Thank the Lord. Samantha’s blood alcohol levels were so low that they were below the legal limit. My daughter had no underlying health issues or abnormalities. Her heart, and all other vital organs were perfect. The lethal amount of the date rape drug put her into cardiac arrest, the age was left and moved around whilst she deteriorated, falling into unconsciousness, slowly minimizing any Cyrene to her brain, ultimately resulting in all her organs failing.
TRACY SIMS SAYS: Samantha’s friend Brooklyn survived.
Yet her voice was completely dismissed in this case and the evidence she tried to share was not responded to. In fact, the constable involved closed her file by notifying her by text/email. She has not had any support and even the medical system and her doctor treated her like a substance user. She has had no support getting a CT scan or counselling. Her mental health has been impacted and she has no faith in the justice system in terms of her own experience as a young adult. She was a victim of attempted homicide, is a primary witness and her experience has been in the shadows. She is 100% ready to share her truth and has a right to have support to start healing. The significance of PTSD in this case has impacted both Brooklyn and her family every day since the event.
THE HEARTFELT WORDS OF SAMANTHA’S FRIEND BROOKLYN FRIESE
Over the last three years, it has been extremely hard for me to express everything I have been feeling and what I have been through. I have always wanted justice for Samantha and have always wanted to help do that in any way I can, by telling the truth and communicating with Tracy Sims Grieve as best as I have been able to. At first, after what happened to Samantha and I, I was expecting there to be an investigation, to be talked to, to be communicated with by someone – anyone.
Right after I got out of the hospital the detective asked me a few questions, then followed up with more questions throughout the next year a couple of times. No one else ever contacted me. Then the investigator texted me saying the case was closed. That was it. I stayed angry for a long time, I still am. I have become numb to everything overtime. Been severely depressed. My emotions aren’t the same anymore. I am not the same person. I have become detached. As if no one ever cared.
The only support I have had is from my family and from Tracy. Which I am so grateful for. But so much more should have been done. Needs to be done. They wrote Samantha and I off. Like it was another day, another overdose. Samantha and I were not drug users. I have been waiting in silence for too long. I am ready to fight the fight that I need to in order to get the justice we deserve. The only person who has ever investigated this case is Samantha’s mom Tracy.
TO THE VICTORIA POLICE DEPARTMENT
GIVE THIS MOTHER THE ANSWERS SHE SO RIGHTFULLY DESERVES. Stop hiding the truth in order to protect the inadequate investigation you did. If it wasn’t for Tracy Sims Grieve her daughter’s death would still be called an accidental death – thanks to your department and their incompetence. This mother has endured an unbelievable injustice, and her personal battle to find justice for her daughter is to be commended.
TRACY SIMS WILL NOT BE SILENCED, AND SHE HAS AN ARMY OF SUPPORTERS BEHIND HER.
JUSTICE FOR SAMANTHA AND FOR BROOKLN. THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD.
ARREST THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS HEINOUS CRIME.
Criminal Code RSC, 1985 C.C-46
Any person who administers or causes to be administered to any other person or causes any other person to take poison or any other destructive or noxious substance is guilty of an indictable offense liable to imprisonment for not more than a term of 15 years.
Link to the article:
Accidental Deaths That Were Really Homicides | The Tyee
THE TYEE GEOFF MEGGS
December 11/2024
Geoff Meggs is a former journalist and Vancouver city councilor. He was chief of staff to Premier John Horgan and has written several books on B.C. politics.
EXPERTS QUESTION ‘UNFORGIVABLE’ ERRORS by BC CORONERS SERVICE IN IMPORTANT CASES.
The BC Coroners Service lags far behind other provinces in its autopsy rates, as The Tyee’s Jen St. Denis has reported, and is much less rigorous than other provinces when it comes to investigations into overdoses.Inquests, even more rare, occur automatically only when someone dies in police custody and then only years after the fact. Now, the professionalism, quality and competence of death scene investigations themselves is under scrutiny.
The BC Coroners Service ruled the April 2021 death of 18-year-old Samantha Sims-Somerville was accidental. Only after her mother did her own investigation did the coroner conclude it was homicide. Photo supplied. After initially ruling the death an accidental overdose, the coroners service changed the verdict to homicide after Sims-Somerville’s mother, Tracy Sims, conducted her own investigation, producing compelling evidence her daughter had been the victim of a deliberate attack.
“We’re talking about a death,” says former solicitor general Kash Heed, now a Richmond city councillor. “We’re talking about the death of an individual, a son, a daughter, a mother or father. How could you become so complacent… that we would not be attending those? How do you explain to a family, well, you know, this is what happened? “The system is absolutely broken,” Heed said. “Is there a will to fix the system? Not unless there’s a desire with our public policymakers and they’re willing to put money into it.”
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com