The grieving family of Arlene Westervelt, a Lake Country woman whose body was pulled from Lake Okanagan in June 2016, is frustrated by more delays in the court process that would finally allow details of Arlenesa国际传媒 suspicious death to be made public.
For almost nine years, the family has tirelessly advocated for answers to how Arlene, a marathon runner and experienced canoeist, could accidentally tip a canoe and drown.
Days prior to her death, Arlene had visited a lawyer regarding separating from her husband, Bert Westervelt.
Bert Westervelt was charged with the second degree murder of his wife in April 2019 but the charges were later stayed without explanation.
Months after Arlenesa国际传媒 death, RCMP superintendent, Brian Gateley who was also a friend of Bertsa国际传媒, was investigated for misconduct after it was discovered that he unlawfully used police technology to unlock Arlenesa国际传媒 cellphone and provide it to Bert.
Although the criminal prosecution of Bert Westervelt has been stayed, Arlenesa国际传媒 family, has not given up on restarting the criminal prosecution.
The family has retained civil lawyer, John Cameron from Vancouver, to pursue civil remedy in the wrongful death of Arlene Westervelt. The court date in the case of Bert Westervelt was originally set for Monday and the case against Brian Gateley and the RCMP was set for June 9, but both cases are being reset to later dates to allow the large volumes of documents that have been produced to be reviewed by the parties.
Bert Westervelt has also recently retained new legal counsel.
As part of the civil action against Bert Westervelt, Cameron successfully applied to the court to for an order that the RCMP release files related to the police investigation into the death of Arlene. Cameron and the RCMP reached an agreement on the terms of the release of those documents and they have been produced recently.
However, the BC Coroners Servicesa国际传媒 resisted the production of any of its reports or communications contained in the RCMP files. The family believes those documents may contain more key information about what they say was a botched handling of the drowning death by the BCCS.
A further application will be made for the BC Coroners file in the near future. Previously in this case the Coronersa国际传媒 office came under fire for failing to properly investigate or conduct an autopsy before Arlenesa国际传媒 body was embalmed. A further application will be required to seek the production of the complete BCCS files.
A hearing date has been set for May 14 to lay out further timelines and procedural steps including canvassing new trial dates in the Bert Westervelt action.
鈥淲e are looking forward to seeing Bert Westervelt in civil court soon,鈥 Arelenesa国际传媒 sister Debbie Hennig said. 鈥淚t has been a long, painful road and we pray that the day is coming when we finally have our answers. We will not stop until justice has been served.鈥
None of the Bert Westervelt or Brian Gateleysa国际传媒 allegations have been proven in court.
