Achi news desk-
SURREY, BC – British Columbia’s police watchdog has launched an investigation into the RCMP’s handling of alleged threats made five months ago against Tatjana Stefanski, who disappeared from her home in the BC Interior in April and later found dead.
The Independent Bureau of Investigations said in a statement Friday that it is investigating the police response to a December 2023 incident in Lumby, where the Lumby and Vernon RCMP departments received a report “indicating concern for the safety of a woman.”
It was said that the woman was found dead on April 14.
“The IIO investigation will now seek to determine what role, if any, action or inaction by the police may have played in the woman’s death,” said the statement, which did not identify Stefanski.
Stefanski’s husband, Jason Gaudreault, told The Canadian Press that he and Stefanski went to police about death threats against her in December, months before she disappeared from their home on April 13.
Related Video
RCMP say Stefanski, 44, was last seen with her ex-husband before “unexpectedly leaving” with him in a black Audi. She was found dead the next day.
The email you need for the day’s top news stories from Canada and around the world.
Gaudreault said the “extreme” threats were made via the WhatsApp messaging app to Stefanski’s father in Germany, threatening to “cut her up” and “send her back in a body bag.”
“Of course everyone has panicked, and we feel very tired,” said Gaudreault. “And I had spoken to Tatjana. I just said, ‘You know what? Enough is enough. This has to stop.’ I said this is not even marginal — this is over the top.
“I said we need to report this. So she finally agreed, and we did it.”
Gaudreault said he asked police for an order of protection but did not receive one.
Police said Stefanski’s body was found in a rural area outside the town. They said a man “believed to be involved in this death was arrested in the general vicinity,” but the suspect was released with conditions.
Gaudreault has previously said he did not understand why the suspect was released. He said he feared he or Stefanski’s children – a nine-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter – could be next, so the family went into hiding.
BC RCMP said in a statement to The Canadian Press last week that the “investigation is in its infancy,” and that the threshold for approving charges was “not trivial.”
The Independent Office of Investigations said Stefanski’s death is being investigated by the RCMP’s Southeast Region Major Crime Unit and the BC Coroner’s Service.
Gaudreault said he doesn’t blame the police, but added that laws related to victims need to change.
— By Chuck Chiang in Vancouver, with files from Brieanna Charlebois
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on May 24, 2024.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
