Deaths of Norah and Romy Carpentier | Poor communications hindered research, coroner says

(Montreal) Coroner Sophie Régnière lifts the veil on the murders of Norah and Romy by their father, Martin Carpentier, who then committed suicide, in July 2020. Several communication problems have hampered the search to find them, conclude reports obtained Thursday.

Florence Morin-Martel
Press

According to the psychological autopsy, Martin Carpentier would have killed his daughters of 6 and 11 years and put an end to his life during an “episode of major depression with probable psychotic symptoms”. On the day of his disappearance, Mr. Carpentier had received an email about the approval of a divorce petition, which could have been “the trigger of events,” writes Mr.^e Sophie Régnière.

If he was determined to divorce, Mr. Carpentier feared losing his daughters, especially since his separation in 2015. His fears had however become “obsessive” in the weeks before the tragedy. “Mr. Carpentier mentioned to his relatives that he was not doing well,” writes the coroner. He seemed to have a rambling speech, still being convinced that his children would be taken from him. ”

On the evening of July 8, 2020, after a meal with members of his family, Martin Carpentier left with his two daughters and never returned. While driving his car on Highway 20 with Romy and Norah on board, he intentionally caused an accident, heading for the median. The car struck a sign post and two other signs while skidding.

Mr. Carpentier then abandoned the car and fled with the two girls. Due to his flight and the farewell text messages sent to his wife before the accident, the gesture would be intentional, concludes M^e Sophie Régnière. “The failure of this attempt to die with his daughters constitutes a point of no return for Mr. Carpentier,” said the coroner.

After spending part of the night in a trailer, Mr. Carpentier fled to a wooded area in Saint-Apollinaire with his daughters, where he stayed until the afternoon. At 1:20 p.m., an AMBER alert was triggered. It is in this wooded area that Martin Carpentier killed his daughters with a branch, before killing himself about ten kilometers away in the evening.

A “lack of collaboration”

In her recommendations, Coroner Sophie Régnière notes the difficulties encountered by the police in obtaining information about missing persons, from a doctor and hospital staff.

At the scene of the accident, the police initially concluded it was a hit-and-run and contacted hospitals in the area to find out whether Mr. Carpentier and his daughters had been admitted. The agents “encountered a lack of collaboration to confirm or deny the presence of these people, the staff taking refuge behind the confidentiality of the information”, writes the coroner. “It was only several hours later that this door was closed by investigators,” she continues.

As the search intensified, Martin Carpentier’s family doctor was contacted by police the next day. The latter, however, “refused to share information which would have made it possible to assess his medical condition and, consequently, to determine the risk to his physical integrity or that of his children”.

The coroner recommends that the departments of Health and Social Services, Public Security and Justice jointly develop a directive for “sharing information in an emergency”.

The police should have called on wildlife officers, firefighters and volunteers trained in search and rescue to help them in their search from the first hours, concludes the coroner. That “could have perhaps made a difference”, estimates M^e Sophie Régnière.

“Badly analyzed” media emergency

Before the AMBER alert was triggered, at 1:20 p.m. on July 9, a notice of disappearance from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) was given to the firefighters for distribution to citizens at around 11:22 a.m. journalist, who wanted to broadcast it, was told to wait by the police, since an AMBER alert would be triggered.

M^e Sophie Régnière believes that the SQ should not have delayed the dissemination of the research notice in the media and that it should have been published “much earlier, in the morning, to take advantage of prime time for the public, at lunch time and when traveling for work ”. According to the coroner, “the media emergency” existed from 6 am and it was “poorly analyzed”.

Subsequently, a one-and-a-half hour delay between the triggering of the AMBER alert and its dissemination also hampered the effectiveness of the searches. A computer problem would have been involved, due to the initial message which contained more characters than the system could handle.

The coroner recommends that the SQ review its emergency communication protocols, so that messages are disseminated faster and more effectively.