A Montreal family wants answers after laying their matriarch to rest.

CTV News has learned that Louise Simon, a 94-year-old Alzheimer's patient, died after making her way out of the Griffith McConnell residence in Cote St. Luc last week.

Simon left her room in the middle of the night and managed to get outside wearing only her nightclothes.

Her family, who buried her on Wednesday, believes she was lying in the cold for at least two hours before someone found her.

On the morning of March 3, a night staffer spotted Simon lying outside.

Grandson Jordan Officer tells CTV's Maya Johnson that she was last seen in her bed between 2:30 and 3 a.m. and was found around 5 a.m.

Simon was rushed to the Jewish General Hospital but died of heart failure as a result of exposure to the cold.

Daughter Patricia Simon says that she still agonizes at night, thinking about it.

"It was cold. She hated the cold. She hated getting cold -- she was out there for a pretty long time," said Patricia.

She said one of her daughters couldn't contain her anger at the residence.

"The day that it happened, my youngest daughter Sarah went in and confronted them. She was beside herself that she'd lost her grandmother."

Failed security?

Simon's family says the security system at the residence clearly failed.

They want to know how she made it out of her room, through an emergency exit and down four flights of stairs without anyone noticing.

What's more, she was wearing an electronic bracelet that's designed to trigger an alarm, and automatically lock doors, if a resident wanders towards an exit.

Patricia says that an alarm should have sounded for fifteen seconds after her mother left the building, but if it did, no one heard it.

Response

Annette Rudy, director-general of the Griffith McConnell residence, declined CTV's request for an on-camera interview, and instead issued a statement.

"In healthcare, we are bound by confidentiality laws so I cannot comment on any individual at Griffith-McConnell," said Rudy.

"However, we do take reasonable precautions to keep all our residents safe."

Rudy declined a second request to speak on camera even after Simon's family granted permission to CTV to obtain information on the case.

In an interview with CTV News in January, Rudy highlighted the technology and security measures in place at the residence.

Long, fruitful life

Now the family is left with their memories of Louise Simon, who was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Born in 1915, she served as a nursing officer with the Canadian forces in the Second World War.

She also wrote poetry, and was described as a free spirit who left an impression on everyone she met.

Simon lived a long and fulfilling life.

It's not the age at which she died, but how she died that's upsetting her grieving family.