William Gareau’s family is shocked to see that after four months, the information is still trickling in or is incomplete, while the police report states that the case is “resolved” and that the toxicology report is still missing.
The mother of the young deceased, Sylvie Marcotte, does not understand how such an event can be “resolved”, without anyone having been met following the tragedy.
The event report from the Dominican National Police ends with the words: “case result”, meaning that the case is “resolved”.
Mme Marcotte believes that the management of the hotel is accountable and that an investigation could have made it possible to find out the circumstances of the death of her son, so that such a tragedy does not happen again.
“[…] if the people around him had been competent, vigilant, and the hotel staff responsive… Rather than throwing William around like a common bag of garbage in his room while he was in complete psychotic delirium and alone , the hotel security guards had the task and procedure of taking him to the infirmary. This gap in security protocol was missed and William paid with his life,” she protests.
The young William Gareau, died in Punta Cana last January.
Photo provided by family
No toxicological report
Mme Marcotte is also outraged to see that no toxicology report has yet been sent to the family, although they recently received an autopsy report.
According to her, there is no doubt that her son was drugged in the Dominican Republic.
The autopsy report of which The newspaper obtained a copy reporting a “violent” death causing serious craniocerebral and thoracic trauma, due to a fall.
“It’s unthinkable that there is no toxicology report, even though they analyzed every part of the body. However, it is the first thing to do when a patient arrives in this state at the hospital,” says M.me Marcotte.
For the lawyer who represents the family, Me Conrad Lord, the absence of this document remains very “mysterious”.
“Worse still, all the documents we received, even the pathologist’s report, make no reference to this toxicological report”
– Mr. Conrad Lord, defends the interests of the family of William Gareau
PHOTO FROM THE SITE LORDAVOCATS.COM
A prosecutor on file
Mme Marcotte adds that under pressure from the Canadian Embassy, a Dominican prosecutor was seized of the case. However, she has no news on this subject.
The family is in contact with a representative of the Embassy, but the responses are most of the time terse and received after long delays.
Psychosis and paranoia
Remember that William Gareau was found unconscious around 1:30 a.m., at the bottom of his bedroom balcony, on January 16.
About an hour before, while leaving the hotel sports bar, his behavior changed dramatically, exhibiting blatant symptoms of psychosis and paranoia.
It was at the sports bar of the Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar hotel that William Gareau spent his last evening. His behavior changed radically when he returned to his room late in the evening on January 15. He was pronounced dead the next day at the hospital.
Elisa Cloutier
“He didn’t recognize me at all, he took me for a Russian spy, he was delirious and said things that made no sense,” explains his partner who accompanied him, Roxanne Brissette.
William then took off his clothes and began shouting incoherent remarks in the corridor, near his bedroom, before dozing off on the floor.
Then security guards intervened to take him back to his room, where they left him alone. A few minutes later, the young man threw himself from the top of his balcony, before being transported to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance cameras
Even though the scene was captured by several surveillance cameras, even though the hotel has 86 of them, the hotel refused to show us the video tapes, under the pretext of confidentiality issues.
The family, who has been asking for them since day one, also suffered the same refusal.
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
