Kimberly Rogers Inquest Alerts

Rogers' pregnancy 'was taking a toll'
by John Size
Canadian Press
appeared in the North Bay Nugget

October 16, 2002

Local News - Police investigators didn’t find a cache of anti-depressant pills in Kimberly Rogers’ apartment, but only one empty bottle on the floor by a dresser near the bed where she was found dead, a coroner’s inquest heard Wednesday.

As well, a police investigator testified that Rogers’ mother had spoke with her daughter a week before her death and said Kimberly had told her the heat and her pregnancy “was taking a toll on her.”

Rogers, 40, was eight months pregnant when she was found dead by her boyfriend, Terry Pyhtila, Aug. 9, 2001.

Greater Sudbury Police forensic identification unit officer David Toffoli told the inquest a search of the apartment turned up no other pill bottles containing the anti-depressant amitryptaline other than the one in the bedroom.

The jury heard Tuesday that Rogers had obtained prescriptions for 1,350 of the 50-milligram pills between May 22 and July 26, 2001.

After Toffoli arrived on the scene around 8 p.m., a search for more pills began, but the only bottle found was the empty one in the bedroom, a prescription for 180 tablets dated July 23, 2001.

A search of the three-room apartment turned up over the counter medications and a prescribed drug called diclectin, a substance used to treat nausea during pregnancy.

That was found on the coffee table in the living room and contained about 30 tablets, the jury heard.

Toffoli testified there was no obvious signs of injury on the body.

Const. Ken Birtch was the first police officer on the scene at about 6:49 p.m.; fire and ambulance crews arrived first. The call came into emergency services as a sudden death from Pyhtila.

Birtch found several windows in the apartment open, the rooms cluttered and a “strong odour of deceased person” near the bedroom.

Upon entering the bedroom, Birtch found Rogers’ body face up on the bed clad only in white panties and the body in an advanced state of decay, he told the inquest.

A television in the bedroom and another in the living room were on at high volumes, he said. As well, a fan in the bedroom was on, but pointed away from where Rogers’ corpse was on the bed.

The five-member jury would later hear a computer in the bedroom was also turned on, but nothing related to Rogers’ death was found on the hard drive. A search of the apartment also failed to turn up any kind of suicide note.

Birtch checked a thermostat in the apartment and said it read 34C.

Rogers’ died during a heat wave with temperatures soaring into the thirties. At the time, she was confined to her apartment under house arrest after pleading guilty to defrauding Ontario Works of about $14,000 in April 2001.

Birtch also found a portable telephone on the couch with the battery removed, but the jury heard that it was common for Rogers to disconnect the phone for periods of time.

Two grocery bags containing several two-litre bottles of pop and some food stuffs were on the kitchen floor. Dirty dishes were in the sink and a plate on the counter had what appeared to be pizza crusts on it, he testified.

Birtch studied the scene and decided to call for additional help from the criminal investigations branch and forensic identification unit.

“I was concerned by the fact that she was pregnant,” he said, adding the scene needed to be looked at very carefully.

Two of Rogers’ neighbours told police they last talked with her the Monday before she died after she asked one of them to go to the store and get her some Tylenol.

Photos of the apartment showed what appeared to be a pop or water bottle beside the bed and a cat sitting on the dresser. The living room table had a tumbler with a dark liquid in it, the dicletin pills and a partially eaten bag of what appeared to be trail mix. Crackers and potato chips were on a shelf underneath the table.

A diploma from Cambrian College was spread out on one of the counters.

A check of the fridge showed it was working and partially full containing typical items such as condiments, Birtch said.

He also testified Rogers was known to leave her apartment for an adjoining rooftop used as a balcony with other neighbours and friends during the heat wave.

A window at the top of the stairs leading to her apartment was open and officers said it was easy for a person to step through the window and onto the rooftop.

Sgt. Len Thibeault, of the criminal investigations branch, said he found the apartment “messy and dirty” with clothing strewn about the rooms.

He testified the apartment was warm “beyond comfort.”

Thibeault later interviewed Pyhtila at police headquarters and said he told him he had known Rogers for about three years and dated her for awhile but didn’t see her again for about two years.

He started dating Rogers again and she would later confront him and claim the baby was his, the jury heard.

Pyhtila said he knew she had been battling depression and had “mood problems,” Thibeault stated.

A later interview with Rogers’ mother, Myrel Caetano, indicated her daughter was in distress a week before her death, telling her mother the pregnancy and heat was beginning to take a toll on her, he said.

Caetano tried to call her daughter all week, but got no response.

The inquest continues today at 9:30 a.m. Expected to testify are a pathologist and toxicologist involved with the case.