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Inquiry into foster child's death
17-year old found dead beside train tracks
August 24, 2006
By ELIZA BARLOW, Staff Writer
A public fatality inquiry has been called into the death of a
17-year-old foster child found dead beside northside railway tracks
in April.
“I really do want answers,” said Mary
Auger, the mother of victim Anthony Marino Gladue.
“It bothers me all the time. It’s
hard to sleep at night.”
Gladue’s body was found by a CN
worker at about 7 p.m. April 26, a few metres from the overpass at
82 Street and Yellowhead Trail, police said at the time.
Police said it appeared Gladue had
been struck by a train sometime between 5 p.m. and 6:50 p.m., though
CN had logged no reports of a collision with a pedestrian.
A medical examiner ruled Gladue died
of head trauma and conducted toxicology tests, but no firm ruling
could be made on whether he committed suicide. The death was ruled
non-criminal.
Auger and Jane Chowace, Gladue’s
aunt, say they didn’t find out Gladue had died until a week after
his body was found, when a social worker told another of Auger’s
sisters.
The family also says they were not
allowed to see Gladue’s body before he was buried May 11. When they
asked to have the clothes he was wearing when he died, they claim
they were told Gladue had been buried in them.
Auger said Gladue had been in foster
care since Jan. 13, 2000, when he and his siblings were removed from
their mother’s care.
At the time of his death, Gladue was
a patient at Alberta Hospital, said his mom.
“We want to know what kind of
medication they had him on. We just want to know why Tony ended up
on the railroad tracks and how come Alberta Hospital didn’t do their
job.”
In the wake of Gladue’s death,
Chowace spent weeks putting together a report on the family’s
unanswered questions, which she sent to several provincial cabinet
ministers.
Last week, Auger says, she got a
letter from Premier Ralph Klein’s office offering condolences on the
death of Anthony and assuring her that a review would be done.
She also got letters from Justice
Minister Ron Stevens and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl Calahasen.
No date has been set for the public
fatality inquiry.
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