news Quebec coroner's inquiry looks at how mom's body ended up in freeze

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Quebec coroner's inquiry looks at how mom's body ended up in freezer



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By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press


LONGUEUIL, Que. - Daniel Martin fibbed so they wouldn't take his mother away.

For eight months, Martin duped health-care workers into believing the 73-year-old woman was at home with him and doing just fine, a Quebec coroner's inquiry investigating the circumstances surrounding her death heard Thursday.

What they didn't know was that Denise Lamontagne's attentive son, who cared for her at their home, had loaded his mom's corpse into a freezer.

Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier opened a public inquiry Thursday, hoping to determine how the health care system lost track of a woman who had been visited by nurses at least once a month for several years.

Police arrested Martin, 51, in May 2008 after they discovered the frozen body inside the decrepit family home in the Montreal suburb of La Prairie.

Workers at the local clinic had called police when they suspected Martin had been lying about his mother's condition.

An autopsy determined Lamontagne died of natural causes. Her son was convicted in December with committing an indignity on a body and sentenced to 18 months probation.

In her ruling, the judge acknowledged the case was delicate because Martin had such a "strong connection" with his mom.

On Thursday, the inquiry heard that Lamontagne was sent home in August 2007 following an extended stay in hospital.

Shortly after her release, nurse Chantal Petit visited the woman, who had been in and out of hospital over several years for many ailments, including diabetes.

That was the last house call Lamontagne would ever receive.

Petit said she gave the woman her monthly injection of vitamin B12, but Lamontagne refused, as she had many times over the years, any further treatment.

Still, Petit said the woman appeared reasonably healthy.

Martin, however, expressed concern that Lamontagne's condition had deteriorated since her discharge, she said.

"I'm scared that my mom is going to die," Petit said Martin told her.

After that visit, Martin refused all house calls to see Lamontagne.

Whenever the clinic's employees phoned, Martin told them his mother was OK and didn't want to be seen anymore.

Nurse Nancy Theoret, who visited Lamontagne regularly for five years, said there was no reason to be concerned.

"You could tell that he really loved his mother," she told the inquiry, also recalling how, in a heartbeat, he would drop everything to help her.

"He wanted to stay with her."

Theoret said she never feared for the woman's safety at home.

"I had no doubt that every time she wasn't well he would take her to the hospital," she said.

Psychologist Melanie Marois testified that when patients are capable of making their own medical decisions, their right to choose what kind of care they receive must be respected.

But on April 30, 2008, Marois discovered that Martin had lied to his aunt, saying that the clinic was visiting Lamontagne on a regular basis.

"She was surprised," Marois said about when she told the aunt, Lamontagne's sister, that it wasn't true.

"She didn't understand why her nephew lied. That's when I said, ' Now, I'm starting to worry about your sister.' "

Doctors from the hospital where Lamontagne had been treated are to testify at a later date.