A mother is speaking out after her son died in an Ontario jail cell with what she says was a massive quantity of heroin hidden inside his body, raising questions about whether he might still be alive had staff searched him more thoroughly.
A mother is speaking out after her son died in an Ontario jail cell with what she says was a massive quantity of heroin hidden inside his body, raising questions about whether he might still be alive had staff searched him more thoroughly.
Jordan Sheard, 26, died at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont., on June 1. He was taken there after spending three days in a hospital under psychiatric care, his mother Angela Vos told CBC News.
“He was a beautiful person, but he was a scared person,” Vos said of her son, describing a difficult childhood that saw him unable to trust people or cope with change.
“He had demons, he sure did. But he was still a human being.”
For years, his mother says, Sheard struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. In recent months, he seemed somewhat better — eating well and working out, looking better than he had in a long time.
But in late May, after a messy breakup and family dispute, things took a bad turn. Sheard grabbed a knife in his dad’s kitchen, saying he wanted to kill himself, Vos said. His father called police and Sheard was taken to nearby Markham-Stouffville Hospital.
‘I believe that they didn’t do their job’
At the end of his hospital stay, his family worried Sheard was still too much of a danger to himself to come back home. But he was still, technically, under house arrest. And, his mother says, a doctor had suggested it might be safer for him in jail, under the watchful eye of guards.
That was the hope, at least.
Instead, overnight, Sheard overdosed. He was given the anti-opioid treatment naloxone and rushed to a nearby hosp