The family of the late Darcie Clark will attend the review board hearing of Alan Schoenborn — her estranged husband, who killed their three children — in Coquitlam next month.
Dave Teixeira, who said he stays in touch with the family and monitors decisions regarding Schoenborn’s access to the community, said Clarke’s brother will attend the Feb. 7 hearing at the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Coquitlam.
“We anticipate another family member will attend as well,” Teixeira told The Tri-City News this week. “I anticipate that we will get an update on what Schoenborn’s been up to over the past year. We understand he has had some escorted outings in the past year and he and his lawyers will be looking for additional freedoms.”
Last year, the review board denied mandatory day passes for Schoenborn, who was found guilty but not criminally responsible for killing his three young children — Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5 — in 2008. But the board permitted supervised visits to the community with hospital approval.
Whether Schoenborn will be allowed day passes in the annual review board hearing is the main question, Teixeira said, and if he does get them, a new photo should be distributed in case he goes missing while on the unescorted outing.
Teixeira noted that the only photo available of Schoenborn is from his 2008 arrest and he does’t look anything like the thin, haggard man in the photo as he has gained weight and is balding.
“Management just does not get it or doesn’t not appreciate the risk that these patients can have in the community. There’s a fine balance between mental health support and integrating them into the community."
A spokesperson from the Provincial Health Services Authority said the psychiatric institute does not provide photos of patients for privacy reasons and it is the RCMP that provides media releases.
But Teixeira said that while he respects the need for patient privacy, having an updated photo on file that could be released by police if a patient needs to be found “makes a lot of sense,” especially since patients do go missing from time to time, including one as recently as this past weekend.
Adam Yvan Gorges went missing from the Coquitlam Forensic Psychiatric Hospital at Colony Farm last Friday but was found Saturday night, nearly 24 hours after he had failed to return while on a four-hour day pass.
A photo provided by police and another photo from when he went missing in June 2019 were markedly dissimilar, prompting concerns from Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart, who wrote in a Facebook post that the institute should have current photos of their patients who are allowed out of the facility on day passes.
"Day passes and other similar visits to community are an important part of the transitioning of patients from mental health treatment facilities," Stewart wrote. "As I've told hospital officials repeatedly, in order to ensure that the public continues to support this process, the hospital needs to have the public's confidence that it's being reasonable and prudent about day passes. Losing that public confidence only adds to the stigma that we're trying to fight."
According to Gorges’s sister, Frances Gorges, her brother is not a danger to the public.
Teixeira told The Tri-City News it’s important the public pay attention to how the review board handles Schoenborn’s case and those of others who are being cared for at the facility.
“Not all individuals are dangerous, [but] there is a subset of those who are dangerous and having updated information protects society, themselves and others.”
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