Susan Clairmont: ‘More than a week decomposing.’ A mother wants answers about her son’s death at Parkdale Landing

Michael Miller fell through the cracks in life. Also in death.

He was blind. He had schizophrenia. And when he died in his tiny, supported-living apartment at Parkdale Landing, and his mother fears his body remained for seven days before anyone found him.

Even then, the staff member who saw him in his bed closed the door and left him for another day.

It is not unfathomable that this could happen at Parkdale because it happened there once before.

I want accountability and truth, as that was my son that laid for more than a week decomposing on his bed," says Arlene McCarthy.

An internal review by Indwell, the non-profit organization which operates Parkdale, confirms much of McCarthy's version of events. Except Indwell says the staff member thought Michael was sleeping.

In an interview with The Spectator, Indwell CEO Jeff Neven declined to speak specifically about Michael's death, saying that is a conversation that breaches tenant confidentiality."

We as a community are grieving with his family that he's passed away," said Neven.

Indwell has completed an internal review of Michael's death to determine: Is there anything we could have done better?"

The review found no instances where staff violated any policy or procedure, according to Neven.

Neven said once the review was complete he would share some, but not all, the findings with McCarthy. She received a one-page report Oct. 4, which she shared with The Spectator.

On Nov. 2, 2018, Michael signed his lease at Parkdale, after his social workers suggested the new building would be a good fit," recalls McCarthy.

Michael was very excited about it."

Parkdale Landing is owned and operated by Indwell, a 50-year-old Christian-based Hamilton non-profit that provides affordable supportive housing. There are nurses, psychiatric social-support workers, addiction experts and housing specialist working at Parkdale.

Indwell's services are in demand more than ever due to a crisis stemming from rampant opioid use and lack of affordable housing.

Parkdale is home to the organization's highest-need residents, who have issues with mental health and addiction.

We're taking folks no one else wants to house," said Neven, who stresses Parkdale Landing is an apartment - not a jail." While assistance is offered, residents live independently.

Michael, who was 45, had a host of challenges from the time he was born in Nova Scotia.

He was legally blind. As a child he was hit by a car, then suffered serious burns to his left hand in an accident.

He didn't finish Grade 10 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15.

He had a lot of issues," says McCarthy, who lives in another province. Michael would stop taking his medication and experience psychosis. He was in and out of St. Joe's Hospital for years," she says, referring to the psychiatric unit where he sometimes stayed for two or three months at a time.

When he wasn't in hospital, Michael was often homeless. He occasionally stayed at the YMCA.

He did not take street drugs and didn't drink, his mom says. He had not been in trouble with police.

Michael was a quiet guy who kept to himself." He loved sports, especially baseball.

Michael did not have a phone and calls to his mom were sporadic and infrequent. His father wasn't a part of his life.

The morning of July 16, McCarthy got a phone call from Hamilton police to tell her Michael had been found dead in his apartment.

McCarthy's understanding, based on her conversation with police, was that a nurse knocked on his door to administer a monthly injection on July 15. When there was no answer, Indwell contacted police.

Two police officers were called to Parkdale on July 15. They had Michael's body removed and tried to reach McCarthy by phone that night, without success. No foul play was suspected.

Exactly what the cause of death was is still unknown, even after an autopsy.

McCarthy said she was told her son's body was badly decomposed.

She thought his scarred hand would be enough to identify his body. But the coroner told her no identifying marks on his corpse were still visible.

He was identified through DNA.

The level of decomposition makes it impossible to know if his heart gave out, which is one possibility suggested by the coroner.

Preliminary toxicology results do not indicate any street drugs in Michael's system, the coroner has told McCarthy.

McCarthy said she would be surprised if her son died by suicide, since he seems to have been going about his normal routine up until he vanished from sight on July 7.

In response to McCarthy's many questions, Indwell sent her a still photo of Michael captured by security video at the front of Parkdale Landing.

It was 10:30 a.m. on July 7 and Michael was coming in with a coffee, his daily ritual.

It is the last time he was seen at the front door before his body was found and removed from his room eight days later.

Those interim days raise many questions.

Did anyone notice that Michael stopped going in or out the front door, which his mom says he did half a dozen times daily for coffee and to smoke?

Did Michael get his dinner - a meal provided to all residents - from the Parkdale dining room?

At the time of Michael's death, tenants were picking up meals from the dining room to take back to their unit because of COVID, according to Neven.

Did anyone do a routine apartment check at Michael's unit? These are checks by staff to determine the physical condition of each apartment, but also to maintain a connection with the resident and informally check on their well-being. Staff have keys and will enter if a knock isn't answered.

McCarthy said three weeks after Michael was found, police mentioned something she hadn't known.

An officer told her that on July 14 - the day before police were called to deal with Michael's body - a Parkdale staff member had opened his door.

The staffer noticed an odour coming from his apartment so she knocked. Then she unlocked the door.

The Parkdale apartments are tiny. Everything in Michael's room - except the bathroom - could be seen from the door.

McCarthy was told by police her son's body was in the bed and obviously dead. Police told her Michael was uncovered and shirtless. She was also told the smell was horrendous.

McCarthy says she spoke to one of those two staff members four times. She said the woman at first claimed she never saw inside Michael's room. Then she said she saw him in bed sleeping" and closed the door.

McCarthy claims that later the staffer admitted she knew Michael was dead, but his body was too gruesome" and she didn't know what to do. So she closed the door and didn't tell her supervisor or call 911.

She said, I saw him decomposed and I couldn't tell you the gruesome details,'" McCarthy said.

The Indwell report has a different account.

It says two staff were doing a regularly scheduled apartment check on July 14th."

It is noted in the log for the past five checks that there was a foul odour" in Michael's apartment.

At 12:39 p.m. after receiving no answer to its knock, Staff A opened the door part way and glanced inside," the report says.

Staff A did place her right foot across the threshold," the report says, adding that can be verified by video - that would be the security video from the camera on the second floor where Michael lived. McCarthy has repeatedly asked to see that video. Indwell has recently told her they would show it to her via Zoom, but they will not send her a copy.

The apartment was dark (no lights were on) but Staff A saw the outline of MM in his bed. There was no response to her calling out. She assumed he was sleeping. Due to the previous notes of the apartment having a foul odour it was not recognized that it was a different smell."

The next morning, the report says, a community health agency informed Indwell staff they had been unable to contact Michael in the previous week, the report says. Police were asked to do a wellness check" and Michael was found dead.

Michael's body was released Aug. 9. His ashes are buried in Nova Scotia.

McCarthy said Neven asked her not to go to The Spectator with Michael's story because doing so would shame the residents."

Neven agreed he asked McCarthy not to contact The Spectator. I asked her, for the sake of our tenants, for the sake of our older people, to not further stigmatize vulnerable people."

McCarthy said what happened to Michael has similarities to what happened to Michel Pilon.

Days after Michael signed his Parkdale lease, another tenant, 97-pound Michel, who used a wheelchair and was dying of AIDs, was murdered in his apartment.

While his body was hog-tied in the bathroom, two staff members opened the door of his apartment for a routine apartment check. His killer, standing in the ransacked unit, told them Michel was out.

It was another day before someone else found his body and the homicide was reported.

At the time of Michel Pilon's murder, these checks were done weekly. At the time of Michael's death, they were being done once every two weeks. Indwell's own recommendations say it will return to weekly check-ins for tenants at Parkdale.

Recommendations from Indwell's internal review:

• Ensure frequency of contact is assessed and documented. Check-ins with primary supports to be scheduled in staff calendars as a reminder. Check-ins and follow ups to be documented in health records. Minimum standard for check-ins will be weekly for enhanced support programs. (This is the program Michael was in.)

• An Eyes-On" checklist will track weekly tenant visualization by staff. This will identify tenants that have not been seen for appropriate follow up.

• Documentation education for all staff.

• Update emergency entry procedure to include wellness checks." A risk matrix is being developed to assist staff with decision-making for situations where a wellness check is indicated.

• If an apartment check is unable to be completed, staff should give 24 hours of notice and reinspect within 48 hours of first attempt.

• Program staff to direct family that all communication should flow through the regional manager after a critical incident.

• Seek formalization of communication between program staff and community health partners for complex cases.

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com