Jury at inquest into mother-daughter deaths calls for more mental health oversight, support

WARNING: This story deals with suicide. Help line information appears at the bottom. 

A coroner's inquest looking into the deaths of Danielle White and her nine-year-old daughter wrapped up in a Charlottetown courtroom Thursday, with the inquest jury recommending more oversight and support for people with chronic mental health issues.

White, 47, and her daughter Olivia Rodd died in July 2020 at a home in the Sherwood neighborhood of Charlottetown. 

Post-mortem records listed carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death. Olivia's death has been ruled a homicide, and White's a suicide. 

When the inquest began in December, a six-person jury heard from five witnesses, including:

Speaking to the jury Thursday, presiding coroner Dr. Craig Malone said an inquest is not called to determine legal responsibility for a death.

"An inquest isn't to hold people to account or lay blame for a death. This is not a criminal trial… An inquest is about identifying the means of death and making that information available to the public to see if there are ways to avoid preventable deaths in the future."

The jury's five recommendations were as follows: 

Those recommendations will go to P.E.I.'s chief coroner for review, then to Minister of Justice and Public Safety Bloyce Thompson for action.

On Thursday morning, the inquest heard closing remarks from Rodd, who was emotional as he spoke to the jury. 

He said he and White separated in 2012, two years after Olivia was born. White had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression and had self-harmed in the past — but she had told him she would never hurt their daughter. 

The inquest heard Rodd and White shared custody of their daughter, but Olivia spent more time with her father. 

White had lived with mental health issues for a number of years, witnesses said, resulting in admissions to hospital admissions in 2013, 2016 and 2018. 

Rodd said he thinks White's psychiatrist should have been checking in on her more often and should have had regular follow-up with her to see how she was coping with the responsibility of caring for her young daughter.