Several Vancouver police officers under ‘neglect of duty’ investigation for Chelsea Poorman case

A B.C. police oversight agency has confirmed an investigation into the Vancouver police handling of Chelsea Poorman's death.

Several Vancouver police officers are under investigation by the province’s police complaint commissioner for their handling of the search for a missing 24-year-old woman who was later found dead outside a vacant mansion in one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

Chelsea Poorman’s body was found in the backyard of a Shaughnessy-area home in late April 2022. The Indigenous woman had been reported missing to the Vancouver police more than 19 months earlier, when she disappeared while on a night out in the city’s downtown entertainment district.

After her remains were discovered, the police said her death was not suspicious and had likely occurred on the Shaughnessy property where she was found, either on the night she disappeared or a short time later.

Sheila Poorman, the missing woman’s mother, said her daughter’s body was dismembered when it was discovered, with some fingers and part of her skull missing.

The announcement of Poorman’s mysterious death – and her unexplained presence on the Shaughnessy property – caused outrage in the Indigenous community, coming as it did one day after the country marked the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also known as Red Dress Day.

‘Neglect of duty’

Vancouver police officers involved in the search for Poorman are under investigation by the New Westminster Police Department after the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner ordered a review of the case, CTV News has learned.

“The commissioner has determined it to be in the public interest to confirm that the New Westminster Police Department has been appointed to conduct an investigation under the Police Act relating to the conduct of several Vancouver Police officers,” said Andrea Spindler, B.C.‘s deputy police complaint commissioner, in an emailed statement.

“Upon reviewing information about the circumstances of Chelsea Poorman, the OPCC initiated an investigation into the conduct of several Vancouver police officers for allegations of neglect of duty involving their response to a missing persons report.”

The initial OPCC investigation began in 2022 but the commissioner later determined it was in the public interest to appoint a retired judge to oversee the case, rather than a senior police officer, Spindler said.

In previous years, the commissioner could only assign a retired judge to an investigation if the OPCC disagreed with the senior police officer’s finding of no misconduct in a case. Legislative changes early last year, however, allow the commissioner to appoint a judge sooner if it’s considered to be in the public interest.

“Retired judges, as adjudicators under the Police Act, operate at arm’s length from the OPCC and serve as an important check and balance to independently assess the conduct of police to determine whether they committed misconduct, and if so, what the appropriate disciplinary or corrective measures should be," Spindler said.

“Public interest considerations may include the nature and seriousness of the allegations under investigation, the complexity of the matter, or potential conflicts of interests.”

Vancouver police spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin declined to answer questions about the OPCC probe Thursday. A member of Poorman’s family did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the investigation.

‘Absolute heartbreak’

Poorman was a member of the Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan and had recently moved to Vancouver before her disappearance.

In the days after her body was found, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs issued a statement condemning the Vancouver Police Department’s “dismissal” of her death as not suspicious, saying her family spent 18 months “relentlessly bringing attention to Chelsea’s disappearance and searching for answers” before she was found.

“How is her death deemed ‘not suspicious’ since the VPD do not know why she would have been at a locked-up and vacant home in Vancouver’s most expensive neighbourhood?” UBCIC secretary-treasurer Judith Sayers said in the statement, calling on the department to “publicly apologize for their slow response to Chelsea’s missing persons report.”

Chief Don Tom, the organization’s vice-president, said Poorman’s “disappearance and death, without any trace ever turned up by the officials in charge,” was “a profound and absolute heartbreak that too many Indigenous families have endured.”

Spindler, the deputy police complaint commissioner, said the agency does not typically disclose whether or not it has ordered an investigation into police actions, but that circumstances in this case warranted public confirmation.