MONTREAL --
WARNING: This article contains details some may find disturbing.
More than two years after two-year-old Rosalie Gagnon's death, a coroner's inquest has finally begun into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
It will aim to find any potential contributing factors into the little girl's murder at the hands of her mother, who was 23 at the time.
The mother, Audrey Gagnon, and daughter were declared missing in a Quebec City neighbourhood in April 2018, when a passerby spotted an empty bloody stroller in a park. Later in the day, police found Audrey without her daughter. After hours of searching, the child was discovered in a garbage can.
Audrey Gagnon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and to committing an indignity to a body.
She faces life in prison, and 14 years with no chance of parole, for stabbing her daughter to death and disposing of her body in a dumpster. Gagnon was sentenced last March.
Nearly a year earlier, in 2019, Quebec's coroner had committed to hold an inquest, but said it wouldn't interfere with the court proceedings.
The inquest finally began this week and aims to shed light on what led to the girl’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. It will also try to identify any potential contributing factors and make recommendations if necessary.
According to evidence presented by the Crown, the toddler was stabbed 32 times and possibly strangled.
This week, the coroner will hear from investigators, youth protection workers, the pathologist involved in the autopsy and witnesses.
The inquest is scheduled to wrap up on Friday, after hearing testimony from police, youth protection workers, the pathologist who worked on the case, and witnesses.
The coroner is tasked with looking into the wider context of the girl's death and coming up with any recommendations into how to prevent similar ones in future. The findings will be made public.
