Mother completes painful trek honouring late son with frozen crosses (5 photos)

Angela Vos recently completed a journey that would make any parent’s heart break.

The Tiny Township woman visited places last week that played a pivotal role in the life and subsequent opioid overdose death of her 26-year-old son Jordan Sheard last June.

“We left at midnight and we were home by 10 a.m. January 31, which is Jordan’s birthday,” Vos says of the trip that featured stops in Midland, the GTA, Kawartha Lakes and the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay where he died.

At each stop, Vos would place a cross that she had crafted out of ice and take a moment to remember her son.

“We did it at night trying to be respectful to both my needs and COVID,” Vos says, adding placing the crosses during the day would have led to people coming out to show their support and, perhaps, compromise individual safety with close personal contact.

“Hugs happen when you cry and you say ‘yes’ because no one likes to be sad. I cannot be responsible for being irresponsible. Seeing my friends and support sick would make me terribly sad.”

With the exception of Midland, each spot played a significant role in the death of Sheard, who also lived in Barrie and Orillia at different times of his life.

"Markham Stouffville Hospital got one because that is where information (about Sheard) was given and the concerns never got repeated,” she says.

A recently released post-mortem report reveals some troubling facts surrounding Sheard’s fentanyl overdose.

"As per psychiatric observations, his insight and judgment were rated as poor," the report noted after examining hospital records from the Toronto-area hospital taken last May. "These behaviours were possibly due to substance misuse, as he had no such reported behaviours when not misusing substances.

"The next day, arrangements were made for Jordan to be transferred to a treatment centre. However, he refused. On May 29th, his father revoked his surety, and Jordan was once again arrested by the York Regional Police Service. The next day, he was admitted to the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay."

The report prepared by the province's Forensic Pathology Service for the Ontario coroner's office reveals that Sheard was twice checked for drugs by guards using body scanners before being entering the Lindsay jail, but nothing was picked up.

“Jordan should never have been in jail,” Vos says, adding her son also suffered from a brain injury and a seizure disorder.

"We just asked for a mental health officer, a wellness check, because he was trying to kill himself. We’d like to see mental health taken care of instead of locking them in a cell.”

According to the coroner's report, Sheard was taken to Ross Memorial Hospital after displaying "bizarre and unusual behaviours" at the jail.

"This prompted an assessment at the emergency department after which several hours he was discharged back to the corrections facility," the report noted. "He continued to display unusual behaviour upon his return.

"On June 1st, early in the morning, he was found vital signs absent in his cell. Resuscitation was attempted but he was later pronounced deceased."

The pathology report also noted that lodged inside Sheard's colon was "a torn and knotted piece of grey plastic bag" containing a purple substance later identified as fentanyl.

"Toxicology demonstrated elevated levels of fentanyl and etizolam. Flualprazolam was also detected but no analytical method was available to determine the concentration. Given the above history and evidence the cause of death is attributed to fentanyl, etizolam and possible flualprazolam toxicity, the manner accidental."

That made the Lindsay stop especially difficult for Vos, who can't understand how the drugs were missed during earlier scans at the correctional centre.

“(I was) told no scans were done, but in the coroner's report it shows they did two different scans two days in a row, but no one knew how to read it,” she says. “In Jordan’s bowels wasn't just fentanyl, but his blood toxicology shows fentanyl, etizolam and another drug.”

Vos also stopped to place a cross at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay where Sheard was pronounced dead on arrival, according to the coroner's report, and the Kawartha Lakes Police station since their officers investigated her son's death.

“The investigators told me a completely different story than what was on the coroner’s report,” Vos says. “I thought Jordan was successful at suicide but, in fact, he suffered for hours and tried to ask for help. Even when he couldn’t talk, he used non-verbal communication that was ignored.”

And while she continues to grieve for her son, Vos is working to reduce the stigma surrounding opioid overdoses and what she sees as their close correlation to mental health and addictions issues.

“Though he is 26 forever, I feel it a great time to pay respect to the overdose crisis,” Vos says.

“We want to come together in unity in our grief to change things. We can’t bring our loved ones back from the dead, but we can change things for the future.”