Kimberly Rogers Inquest Alerts

No note: Experts can’t determine
if Rogers took her own life
by Keith Lacey

Northern Life
October 17, 2002

An experienced toxicologist told a coroner’s jury Kimberly Rogers ingested a lethal amount of the drug she had stockpiled during the weeks before her death.

Testing isn’t available to reveal how many pills she took to cause the overdose, said Dr. Randall Warren, a toxicologist for the Centre of Forensic Science’s Northern Regional Laboratory in Sault Ste. Marie.

It is impossible to tell if death was caused by an overdose of pills taken at one time or over the course of several days, he said.

The inquest has heard Rogers died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescription drug used to treat depression and migraine headaches.

Rogers had stockpiled more than 1,300 pills during three visits to the pharmacy in the 10 weeks before her death in August 2001. She was prescribed six pills, a total dosage of 300 milligrams, to take every night before bed. No pills were found in her apartment.

Rogers was found dead Aug. 9, 2001. She had been sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty to theft over $5,000 for collecting $14,000 in welfare benefits while she had student loans.

The inquest has already heard Rogers, who was more than eight months pregnant when she died, suffered from chronic depression for years. She also had migraine headaches, panic attacks, insomnia and physical pain.

At the time of her death, social activists and opposition politicians lashed out at Tory government policy regarding welfare fraud. For this reason, this inquest is being watched by the national media.

Lower extremity blood tests conducted a week after her death indicated Rogers had 1.27 milligrams of amitriptyline per 100 millilitres of blood, said Warren.

“This is a concentration in a range that has caused fatalities.”

Blood from her heart showed a concentration of .26 milligrams of the drug per 100 millilitres of blood, which is also in the range causing toxic reaction and death, said Warren.

If taken as prescribed, blood tests would show a range of between .01 and .05 milligrams of the drug per 100 millilitres of blood, said Warren.

Death has been caused by readings as low as .08 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood with amitriptyline.

“She was clearly within the range of causing death,” he said. “With this class of drugs, how they are absorbed, distributed and eliminated is not well known…clearly in my opinion, she would have taken more than the prescribed amount. How much, I don’t know.”

The blood tests indicate Rogers had consumed much more than the prescribed amount, said Warren.

“Clearly in my mind, the person has taken a lot of the drug to get to that concentration,” he said.

The most common reaction from this particular drug is for the heart to stop working properly and go into cardiac arrest, he said.

The deceased’s body was badly decomposed and had a high reading of ethyl alcohol.

It was his professional opinion the high alcohol readings were a direct result of body decomposition called a “putrification process.”

Presiding coroner Dr. David Eden asked Warren if it was possible Rogers overdosed solely on amitriptyline .

Warren said that was a strong possibility.

Eden then asked if it was possible a combination of extremely high temperatures, pregnancy, and then overmedicating over a short period of a few days could have caused death.

“That’s certainly possible as well,” said Warren.

A veteran Sudbury police officer told the jury while suicide can’t be ruled out, there was no proof beyond the drug overdose to verify Rogers took her own life.

Const. Kenneth Birtch testified there was no suicide note found by police.

After finding an empty bottle for prescription pills near her bed, Birtch said he thought Rogers might have taken her own life.

However, after spending almost two hours in her apartment, he concluded other causes of death should not be ruled out, said Birtch, a veteran officer with more than 25 years on the job.

His experience attending numerous suicide scenes made him feel something wasn’t right, said Birtch.

Neighbours and a former boyfriend described Rogers as being in a good mood in the days before her body was found. She had obtained a crib and stroller for her unborn child and placed them inside her apartment.

There were also grocery bags filled with food, two televisions turned on at loud volume. He also found the body and a refrigerator filled with food.

“None of these circumstances matches with someone bent on ending her life,” said Birtch.

During a break in proceedings, Birtch admitted too many people have “automatically concluded” Rogers committed suicide.

“I honestly don’t have it set in my mind what happened,” said Birtch, outside the courthouse. “But I do think a lot of people, because she did die from an overdose, have made the assumption she committed suicide.

“An overdose can be accidental, someone else could have administered the drugs or she could have committed suicide. But it’s more than presumptuous to jump to any conclusions on the second day of an inquest set to last five or six weeks.”

Terry Pyhtila, Rogers’ former boyfriend, reported to police he had found the body inside her apartment the evening of Aug. 9, 2001

Birtch was dispatched to the scene, secured it and made observations and notes. He entered a bedroom and found Rogers lying on her back clad only in her underwear. A television in the bedroom and a second TV in the living room were both turned on with the volume level high, said Birtch.

Her body was badly decomposed indicating Rogers had been dead for some time, he said.

Sudbury was in the midst of a crippling heat wave and a thermometer inside the apartment indicated a reading of 34 C (93 F) even though there was a cooling breeze outside that evening when he arrived at 8 pm, said Birtch.