What happened to Shanna Halleran? Family fears police investigated too late

Shanna Halleran spent the last two days of her life awake in a St. John's hospital bed, critically injured but capable of answering questions from police about how she got there, says her family — if only the police had shown up.

Halleran died on Aug. 17, 2019, without ever being questioned by police, her family says.

That's left a huge void for the people who loved her and few clues to catch the person responsible for her death.

"I'm extremely angry about it," said Stacey Halleran, Shanna's younger sister.

"And it's on both parts: the people who are involved and the police. It feels completely ignored and pushed aside, that's how it feels."

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) says her death is "suspicious" and that it involved a vehicle. The force is declining to answer questions about its handling of the case or about the status of the investigation into her death.

The medical examiner's office has determined the 36-year-old's manner of death is inconclusive.

But Halleran's family is convinced that what happened was no accident.

To understand why Shanna Halleran was on an isolated section of Minerals Road in Conception Bay South on Aug. 15, 2019, her family says you need to know about her life in the months and years leading up to her death.

Barb Houlihan says her first-born child was kind, funny and athletic. Halleran played basketball and baseball and was involved in cheerleading throughout school.

But when she was in her teenage years, Houlihan said, Halleran was misdiagnosed with social anxiety.

There was a time when Halleran begged her mother to bring her to hospital, Houlihan said, because she thought she was going crazy.

Halleran was given Paxil for social anxiety, but as the anxiety became worse, Ativan was added to the mix. When she couldn't sleep, her doctor suggested sleeping pills, Houlihan said.

Misuse of those drugs and an untreated mental illness culminated in a full-blown opioid addiction.