A Vancouver police officer is being accused of providing false information to investigators who are looking into the 2001 death of Owen Padmore, a 31-year-old University of Victoria student. He was injured at his mother’s home on Hampshire Road in Oak Bay and then died the next day in hospital.
Owen’s mother, Jeanne, is aware of the allegations but said she just wishes police would stop calling her son’s death suspicious and give the family some peace.
Jeanne said Thursday she believes her son’s death was accidental, which was the conclusion reached by Oak Bay police during their initial investigation.
In 2008, new information came to light. Police from Oak Bay and Saanich as well as the RCMP reviewed the earlier investigation and reached a new conclusion that Padmore had met with foul play.
In March 2011, police announced the arrests of three people from Greater Victoria who had been with Padmore on Dec. 10, 2001, the day that he was injured.
Jeanne said the three were herself, her daughter and a 38-year-old family friend “who is like a son” to me.
She and her daughter were released without charges. After several months of review, the Crown prosecutors’ office said there was insufficient evidence to approve manslaughter charges against the man, so he was released.
“During the course of the investigation it became apparent that a member of the Vancouver Police Department was aware of information that was relevant to the investigation,” said Oak Bay Chief Constable Mark Fisher in a statement Thursday.
The Vancouver officer was questioned by investigators in March 2011, but he recanted portions of his statement a month later.
“It is alleged the Vancouver police officer revealed details of the case to another person involved in the investigation, that the officer accessed restricted police databases without authorization and provided that information to the same person, and that the officer had failed to provide knowledge he had of the death to police,” said Fisher.
The investigation into Padmore’s death remains open, Fisher said.
The new development is dragging out a long investigation, and Jeanne Padmore said she is dismayed.
“I feel really unhappy — it just never goes away,” she said.
“It’s been 11 years. We know what happened. We feel he fell.”
The Oak Bay detectives who conducted the initial investigation made the correct determination that Owen’s death was accidental, Jeanne said.
“They were experienced cops who had been around the block a number of times and had seen lots. What they said made such sense, knowing everybody in the house,” she said.
Owen didn’t live at his mother’s house but he came over for dinner regularly, Jeanne said
“We saw him two or three days a week.”
Jeanne said she is aware of the allegations against the officer but can’t talk about it “because it would hurt people.”
She doesn’t think the officer’s actions had significant impact on the investigation into Owen’s death.
Jeanne said police carried out surveillance on her home on the suspicion that she was conspiring with whoever was involved with Owen’s death.
“We’re not like that, we’re just ordinary people,” she said. “It’s ridiculous to say we conspired to do anything to Owen. We put up with him, we were nice to him.
“Sometimes he was a lot of fun.”
The night he died, Owen was at the house to watch the TV show Law and Order. She believes he died after taking a drag from a cigarette after a period of not smoking. He passed out and hit his head on the floor, Jeanne said.
“I wish they would all end it so we can rest in peace,” Jeanne said of the investigation.
“I know what happened to me and I know that to be the truth. Owen is long buried. We gave him a nice Islamic funeral because he was into the Qur’an deeply — not the bomb-making type, he was more interested in the architecture.”
Jeanne said her family still talks about how police treated her family and the friend during the investigation.
“They were nasty. I just want to remember Owen as a handsome 30-year-old. I don’t want anything more to do with it.”
