How did the bright, young single mom from the suburbs who hated to even take a Tylenol end up inside a North End apartment with a lethal dose of morphine in her system following a rock concert?
It's a question that has haunted family and friends of Wendy Henry since her tragic death last fall -- and one that has now led to unique criminal charges being laid by Winnipeg police following a lengthy investigation and consultation with justice officials.
Curtis James Haas, 47, was arrested this week on charges of manslaughter and trafficking in morphine in what legal experts believe is the city's first case of its kind.
Henry, 20, collapsed and stopped breathing after taking a number of morphine tablets inside a Dufferin Avenue rooming house suite that Haas owned. She was rushed to hospital but died the following morning.
"My daughter didn't do drugs," a sombre Glen Henry told the Free Press on Friday in an interview from his Fort Richmond home.
"She wouldn't even take anything for a headache. Morphine is very hard to get, and one of the puzzling things here is where she got it from."
Henry was living with her father and two younger siblings, filling her days by caring for her two-year-old daughter, working with disabled children at the Winnipeg School Division and taking sign-language classes.
She was also planning to enrol at Red River College.
"Wendy was an angel. She was great with kids -- just a really great person," said her father.
On the night of her fatal overdose last October, Henry and some friends had gone to an Ozzy Osbourne concert at the MTS Centre. She then went to stay the night with her mother -- who lived in the same Manitoba Housing apartment complex as Haas, he said.
Somehow, she ended up inside his suite. Glen Henry believes his ex-wife wasn't home at the time.
Neighbours told the Free Press Haas was outgoing, often sitting in his sixth-floor suite with the door open and traffic coming in and out through the day and night.
He had a computer he liked to use for messaging, said neighbours, and often had older male friends who hung out in the suite with him.
Haas -- described as a tall, blond man -- was also well-known among friends in the complex for giving rides in his white station wagon to medical clinics. He reportedly worked at a church food bank, though neighbours were not able to identify which one.
Haas moved away in the week immediately after Henry was carried out of his suite, after giving some of her belongings to a friend who also lived in the complex to deliver back to her family, according to neighbours.
Another young woman who was in the suite on the night of Henry's overdose told the Free Press the young woman was fine when she left early and was shocked to hear what happened.
Police said Haas is not known to them, and court records show he has no criminal history in Manitoba. He is being held in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre and declined an interview request.
None of the allegations have been proven and he is presumed innocent.
Henry maintained her Facebook page, updating it just days before her death.
The Transcona Collegiate Institute grad described herself as "a very busy person... I really haven't got any time to hang out with friends... when I do it's usually on the weekend when I'm not working. I do enjoy clubbing. I love to dance I like the wild, loud out-of-control places. LOL."
Her interests included spending time with her daughter, playing football and working out at the gym "to keep yourself looking good. LOL."
Several friends and family members have expressed their grief through a tribute page set up on the popular social-networking website.
"This is just so shocking, all that has happened," her father said Friday.
"I still look to my door and hope that she's going to walk through it one day."
www.mikeoncrime.comgabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Case could set precedent in war on drug traffickers
by Mike McIntyre
Legal eyes across the country will be focused on Manitoba as justice officials prosecute an alleged drug dealer for the death of one of his clients.
And those who make a fortune off drug trafficking will no doubt be paying close attention as well.
The manslaughter case against Curtis Haas is rare -- but not without precedence in Canada.
A 1993 Supreme Court ruling upheld a conviction against an Ontario man who injected a young woman with cocaine following an all-night party. The victim -- who asked to receive the drugs -- dropped dead of a heart attack.
The Crown was able to prove what is known as "unlawful act" manslaughter, saying the drug injection was clearly illegal and the dealer should have known it was liable to cause bodily harm or death.
The case -- known as the Queen versus Creighton -- will likely be referenced down the road in Manitoba.
Defence lawyer Josh Weinstein said the Creighton case won't mean a guaranteed legal victory, as the accused physically injected the victim and also tried to cover-up the scene by wiping away fingerprints and fleeing.
In this case, Haas allegedly gave the victim, Wendy Henry, morphine tablets. Other specifics of the allegations have not emerged publicly - although the charge would likely be murder, not manslaughter, if Haas was accused of forcing the drugs into Henry's system.
"I think this is going to be a tough one," said Weinstein.
"The question is one of forseeability. Does the accused have the capacity to understand (what could happen). Now, there's no doubt a pharmacist who accidentally gives away too much would be judged differently than a street dealer."
Winnipeg police said Friday that similar arrests and prosecutions could follow if it can be proven a drug dealer's customer died from the illegal product.
Earlier this year, a rural Saskatchewan woman who overdosed on crystal methamphetamine successfully sued the man who gave her the drug in what is believed to be the first legal victory of its kind in Canada.
Sandy Bergen and her parents launched the negligence claim against Clinton Davey in 2005, asking for more than $50,000 in medical costs and other damages.
Bergen suffered a heart attack in 2004 during the overdose and spent 11 days in a coma. Now living in Saskatoon, she speaks at high schools about the dangers of crystal meth.
"Financially, I'm not really going to gain from it. But it's a way of holding him responsible," Bergen told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
There have already been similar cases in the United States, where more than a dozen states have passed a Drug Dealer Liability Act. No such legislation exists in Canada.
www.mikeoncrime.com
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