Kimberly Rogers Inquest Alerts

Police called for help after woman found dead
Inquest probes house-arrest death

by Kate Harries
Ontario Reporter
The Toronto Star
October 17, 2002 – 01:00 EDT

SUDBURY — The first officer at the scene after the body of a pregnant woman was discovered in her bedroom realized that this was a case that needed a full investigation, an inquest has heard.

"I asked for criminal investigation moments after I got there," Constable Ken Birtch of the Greater Sudbury Police Service told the inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers yesterday.

Birtch said he was concerned by the fact that the dead woman was clearly pregnant, by an empty bottle of pills on the floor and by a stained pillow with a concave depression near her head. "It looked like it might have been placed over Ms Rogers' face," Birtch said.

But foul play was quickly ruled out by forensic and other evidence, testified Sergeant Leonard Thibault of the force's criminal investigation division, who responded to the call for help.

Rogers' body was decomposing, and had been discovered shortly before police arrived by her boyfriend, who is to testify today.

The 40-year-old woman died Aug. 9, 2001, halfway through a six-month custodial sentence being served in her home for welfare fraud.

Conditions in the apartment were described yesterday by the four police officers at the scene that evening as untidy and dirty — with clothes and garbage littering the floor, dishes in the sink and clutter piled up on tables.

The officers were met by an overpowering odour, and the noise from two televisions turned up to a high volume, one in the living room and another in the bedroom.

A fan whirred by the bed, but had little effect, said Birtch, who noted that a thermostat registered 34 C in the kitchen area, where there was a cross breeze from two windows.

Against one bedroom wall, a crib and a stroller awaited the baby that was due Sept. 5.

In the kitchen, two unpacked grocery bags in the floor contained crackers and soft drinks, Birtch said.

Rogers was charged with fraud in September, 2000, for collecting welfare benefits and student loans at the same time. In April, 2001, she was sentenced to six months house arrest and ordered to repay $13,000.

The officers searched the apartment for prescription medication — standard procedure in such cases — and a suicide note. They found neither. A computer in the bedroom was subsequently searched by OPP experts, but no information was found to cast light on her death, the inquest was told.