Becca Stone's Kelowna home was always filled with her teenage daughter's blaring music.
The house has been silent for more than a month now.
In the early morning hours of May 7, Jade Stone died outside the Ellis Place Supportive Housing building in downtown Kelowna, with only a blanket covering her naked body. She had just turned 18.
Jade's mother Becca is now trying to piece together the last few hours of her daughter's life and understand what led to her death.
An autopsy has been conducted, but toxicology results aren't expected until some time in July. Becca says the cause of Jade's death is presumed to be an accidental overdose though.
Self-medicating
Like many young people, Jade had struggled with mental health issues from an early age, dealing with depression and anxiety in her early teens. Her mental health deteriorated further as she grew older, Becca said.
“It was psychosis, like auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoid delusions, coupled with crazy anxiety,” Becca said.
“I remember taking her to Kelowna General Hospital, she'd been smacking her head off her bedroom wall, the drywall had a dent in it, her forehead was all cut. So I took her to the hospital and said she needs to be admitted. She needs help.”
Jade used substances to self medicate, her mother said.
“As much as I hated it, she was very honest [with me],” Becca said. “The hallucinogens, the weed, those were her favourites. And cocaine.”
Jade always told her mother that she would never take opioids, like fentanyl, telling her that it never appealed to her.
But while the toxicology report has yet to be completed, Becca's been told by a person who was with her on the night of her death that Jade asked for, and was given “down” on the night she died — a slang term that encompases opioids like heroin and fentanyl.
But Becca doesn't know what to believe.
Seeking help
After spending a couple years in Alberta with her father's family beginning in 2022, Jade returned to live with her mother this past December.
Within a couple months, Jade told her mother she needed to go the hospital, as she feared she may harm herself. After waiting at KGH for five hours, Jade was finally able to see a doctor, who certified her under the Mental Health Act and told her she'd have to stay at the hospital.
“Maybe she thought they were just going to get her new medication, send her home. I don't think she realized they we're gonna do that,” Becca said. “She got a little freaked out and she tried to run. Security had to run after her and bring her back. You know, she was scared.”
Becca said she “breathed a sigh of relief” thinking her daughter was finally going to get the help she needed.
After spending a few days at the hospital, seeing multiple psychiatrists, she was sent home. The doctors said she no longer presented concerning symptoms.
“Not that I didn't want her home, but I felt that she needed to stay longer to have a proper assessment,” Becca said.
“They were trying to determine, is this an underlying psychiatric condition or, they were so focused, I think, on drug-induced psychosis. And I kept trying to say that I saw signs, I saw symptoms before she started using drugs recreationally.”
The hospital discharged her with a recommendation to attend the voluntary early psychosis intervention program through the Foundry.
“[It] seemed good at first, finally getting the help, she's going to see the psychiatrist and get a proper diagnosis and get help,” Becca said.
“But the Foundry, I mean, they do good work, but it's a voluntary place and for someone who is going through psychosis, I don't think they are fully able to commit to something that's voluntary.”
Needing a 'breather'
While Becca said they had some positive results with Jade's support worker through the Foundry, Jade continued to spiral in the months after she was discharged from the hospital.
“It got really difficult, just at home, she'd have what I call her little outbursts, where everything just gets too much and she doesn't know how to function, she doesn't know how to cope,” Becca said. “She'd scream into a pillow or throw something in her room.”
Jade's support worker and a family counsellor who Becca had been speaking with at the Foundry suggested that Jade spend a couple nights at Kelowna's Alexandra Gardner Women and Children Safe Centre to get some space.
Becca resisted the idea for weeks, but finally agreed in early May, believing the “breather” would be good for both of them.
Jade's support worker picked her up on Saturday, May 3 and took her to the AG Safe House, a shelter for women and children.
“I assumed it's a safe house, it's going to be safe,” Becca said.
Ready to have her home
Jade texted and called her mother over the few days she stayed at the safe house, returning once with her support worker to pick up some clothes and have a shower.
Becca, meanwhile, used the time alone to research in-patient treatment facilities in B.C. where Jade might be able to find the help she needed. Becca had come to the conclusion that Jade was past the point where voluntary, out-patient services were going to be helpful.
“What do I need to do, because I'm not going to give up on her, I'm not going to fail her. Just to have a bit of breathing room to figure out what we're doing," she said.
“Also, the stress was a lot for me, I'm not going to lie. Watching your baby go through that, feeling helpless. What do I do?”
But after a couple of nights, Becca was ready to have her daughter home.
“It had already been too many days and I hated the idea of her not being home,” she said. “But everyone told me that this was the right thing to do. And of course you play the blame game, we've all done that. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.”
Becca had planned to call Jade's support worker on Wednesday to get her home. But she never had the chance.
Devastating news
The last text Becca received from Jade was at 9:09 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6. Becca had been texting with her about her day, but Jade stopped responding.
Becca was then woken by a phone call from the RCMP at 3:46 a.m. The safe house had reported that Jade missed the 10:30 p.m. curfew and hadn't returned to the shelter that evening.
Becca figured Jade had likely just stayed the night at a friend's house, but as she took the long bus ride into downtown Kelowna that morning to go to work, she said “something did not feel right.”
Later that afternoon, an officer again reached out, asking for a photo of Jade to determine if the person the police had found was Jade.
“I'm like, OK, they found her. Oh, God, what has she done? Is she in the back of a police car, did she get into a fight?” Becca said.
But the officer told Becca he'd like to speak to her in person, so she walked over to the downtown Kelowna RCMP detachment from her work. It was there that Becca was told her daughter had been found dead.
“And then I think I just slid off of the chair I was on and crumpled to the floor, just hysterical,” Becca said. “I just kept asking, 'I want to see her. When can I see her? Where is she? I want to see her'.”
Part 2 of Jade's Story will be published Tuesday morning.
