Daughter convicted in BC Supreme Court for negligence in death of elderly mother found emaciated, dehydrated, with stage 4 pressure sores
Elizabeth Robinson found guilty seven years after paramedics found her 75-year-old mother near death in a Chilliwack campground
July 3, 2026
Warning: Some of the details in this story that came out in court could be disturbing to some readers.
A Chilliwack woman was found guilty of failure to provide the necessaries of life in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday (July 3, 2026) in connection with the death of her mother who was discovered in horrific physical conditions in a tent seven years ago.
When paramedics found Elizabeth Robinson’s mother Marilyn at the Vedder River Campground on June 23, 2019, the 75-year-old woman was emaciated, severely dehydrated, covered in old feces and urine, with stage-four pressure ulcers, the most severe type of bed sores involving full-thickness tissue loss.
Marilyn also scored “very low” on the Glasgow Coma Scale, a standardized test used by medical professionals to measure consciousness.
Marilyn Robinson died at Chilliwack General Hospital the next day, her cause of death listed as multi-organ failure from sepsis linked to the pressure sores, compounded by hypothermia, Crown prosecutor Gail Barnes told the court on the final day of Elizabeth Robinson’s trial June 10, 11 and 12.
The Crown's case against Robinson was largely circumstantial as there was no direct evidence of what happened during the weeks between a visit to hospital in May 2019 and Marilyn’s death on June 23, 2019.
In her defence, Robinson claimed her mother’s condition worsened rapidly and that they even had a birthday celebration for her on June 21. Medical experts, however, testified Marilyn's condition on June 23 was inconsistent with her having been fine just days earlier.
One piece of key evidence, again circumstantial, was that when Marilyn was admitted to Langley Memorial Hospital, she was malnourished, disoriented, and she had a rash that turned out to be pressure sores. While medical staff assessed Marilyn determining she lacked capacity to make her own medical decisions, Elizabeth removed her from the hospital against medical advice.
She reportedly told hospital staff she was “taking my mother now.”
Marilyn Robinson had a documented history of dementia going back to 2015 with a doctor noting a marked decline in early 2019.
Marilyn had been living with someone else as late as 2018 but Elizabeth took her mother into her own care near the end of that year.
They moved around to various residences but eventually were homeless living for stints in a tent and even in a vehicle.
Robinson's evidence included testimony from her sons and friends where she tried to paint a different picture, that she and her mother were close, even describing the relationship as best friends.
Elizabeth claimed that Marilyn was independent and made her own decisions. The 56-year-old said her mother’s decline was sudden and not something she could have anticipated. Elizabeth said she cared for her and took action when needed such as taking her to the doctor or making emergency calls.
Robinson disputed much of the Crown's medical evidence and the details attributed to her in statements she had apparently made to a hospital social worker, such as that the two of them lived unhoused for 89 days and spent four days living in a car.
The Crown’s case led by ad hoc counsel Gail Barnes was that defence evidence was largely unreliable. Some witnesses called didn’t even know about the charges so had to recall six- and seven-year-old events.
Barnes also argued that some testimony in Elizabeth’s defence was implausible given the extreme state of deterioration Marilyn was in upon her death on June 23, 2019.
To prove someone is guilty of failure to provide the necessaries of life, the person must be under the charge of the accused; be unable to withdraw from that charge due to age, illness, or incarceration; and be unable to provide for themselves properly.
The failure must endanger life or be likely to cause permanent health problems assessed on what a reasonably prudent person would have done. Specific “necessaries of life” are not defined in the law, but include food, shelter, medical care, and general protection from harm. The usual victims of the criminal charge are elderly parents, young children, or incapacitated individuals who are incarcerated or otherwise in institutions.
Crown relied in part on two legal precedents that established that an adult child can assume a duty toward an aging parent through the conduct of caregiving, even without a formal legal obligation, and that the duty can "crystallize" or intensify once the parent becomes physically helpless.
Barnes pointed out that a person can do all kinds of things on their own behalf. They can say don’t believe in modern medicine or they dislike hospitals doctors all they, but the law says they do that for someone in their care.
“A grown person can say ‘I want to go live in a box under a bridge,’” Barnes said in closing arguments. “A person cannot say ‘I’m going to live in a box under bridge with my two-year-old.”
In fact, because of her age and dementia, Barnes told the court that Elizabeth had a higher duty to Marilyn than she did to herself.
While Elizabeth Robinson was self-represented and at times cross-examined witnesses, she did have help from David Ferguson, a lawyer serving as amicus curiae, which means a friend of the court that is required in certain circumstances for self-represented individuals.
Ferguson concluded the case for Robinson trying to raise some reasonable doubt in the Crown’s circumstantial case.
Justice Warren Milman found there was no reasonable doubt and convicted Robinson. Prior to sentencing, the court ordered a pre-sentence report, which includes a psychological or psychiatric evaluation. While Robinson has been found guilty and capable to stand trial such that a plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect can no longer be used, her psychological condition could be a mitigating factor. A traumatizing anecdote that came out in defence’s closing arguments involved a harrowing experience of her once being trapped under the body of a man who died of an apparent drug overdose.
The court also ordered that a Gladue report be prepared, which assesses an accused’s Indigenous background. Depending on the length of time and level of connection to one’s Indigenous heritage that can be a mitigating factor in sentencing.
A conviction under section 215 of the Criminal Code comes with a sentence of not more than five years in prison.
Justice delayed
The case has wended its way through BC Supreme Court for years, not least of which because Elizabeth Mary Joy Robinson was self-represented, a challenging situation for a layperson in a serious criminal matter. Robinson also had a warrant issued for her arrest after her first appearance back in June 2021. After a preliminary inquiry in provincial court on July 8, 2022, she was ordered to stand trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
She was found guilty in January 2026 of the unusually named charge, failing to appear having appeared.
After the 2021 preliminary inquiry, there were several lengthy delays which must have been largely caused by Robinson herself. She was ordered to stand trial in Supreme court on July 8, 2022 and the guilty verdict came on July 3, 2026, which is 48 months. This could be seen as too long due to the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada case of R. v. Jordan that finally put hard numbers on the vagaries of an accused’s right “to be tried within a reasonable time” under section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The high court decision in Jordan under 11(b) created a framework with a presumptive ceiling of 18 months for cases tried in provincial court and 30 months for cases in a superior court. After 30 months, it’s up to the Crown to rebut the presumption that the delay is unreasonable, as in, unforeseen circumstances outside of the court’s delay, which includes delay by the accused themself.
Since Robinson never asked the court for a stay of proceedings even when helped by a lawyer, the delay was on her.
Her sentencing is unlikely to be heard until 2027.
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Paul J. Henderson
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