Denise Scriven was so distraught in the months before her sister died that she planned to write a suicide note, tuck it into her sister's pocket and send her on a bus to Calgary.
She said she thought by the time someone read the note, she and her husband would both be dead.
"That was my solution," Scriven testified Wednesday, on the third day of a fatality inquiry into the November 2009 death of her sister, Betty Anne Gagnon.
"It's all I could think of to do."
Scriven didn't carry out that plan.
Denise and Michael Scriven leave the Sherwood Park courthouse after testifying at a fatality inquiry Wednesday. (Janice Johnston/CBC)
She and her husband, Michael Scriven, were originally charged with manslaughter in Gagnon's death. They were later allowed to plead guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life. Both were sentenced to serve 20 months in jail.
On Wednesday, more than seven years after the death of her developmentally delayed sister, Scriven took the stand in the Sherwood Park courthouse and spoke publicly about the case for the first time.
In a low voice, she haltingly described months of personal struggles. During often tearful testimony, Scriven described the stress of trying to deal with her sister while having a mental breakdown.
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Gagnon came to live with the Scrivens in 2005, after her father asked them to take her in.
'I had dread over it'
Scriven admitted she didn't agree right away.
"Actually, in truth," she said, "I had dread over it."
She said her husband convinced her it was the right thing to do.
"Mike said, if we have to, she's family. She needs us."
She described moving from a house in Edmonton to an acreage near Ardrossan in the fall of 2005, because it was a safer environment for her sister, who had impaired vision. Scriven said her husband renovated the basement to accommodate Betty Anne.
Scriven told the fatality inquiry that things went well for a few years. Her sister's health and weight improved.
The rest of the family said they'd never seen Betty Anne happier or more engaged, Scriven testified.
But the situation began to deteriorate in September 2008.
Scriven was having ongoing battles with her own 18-year-old daughter. She described a raucous argument with her husband one night, during which he smashed the television, threatened divorce and vowed to commit suicide. Around the same time, Scriven said she was struggling with her job as an emergency room nurse at an Edmonton hospital.
"That's when I had a severe breakdown," she said.
Scriven said she eventually went on long-term disability, which resulted in a pay cut and increased money troubles.
"I couldn't function," Scriven said. "I was totally emotionally, mentally broken. I was shattered."
She described crawling into a cupboard and staying there for hours.
"All I would do is cry and cry. I wasn't the same person I was before."
Begged government program for help
Scriven said she called Persons with Developmental Disabilities in March 2009 to beg for help.
She testified she told the PDD worker: "I can't take care of myself. I can't function. I can't make a cheese sandwich. I can't crawl out of the cupboard."
She said she told them she could no longer take care of her sister.
During that phone call, Scriven said she was told there were no placements available for her sister. But she said she still thought someone would come to check on them.
"I thought after my phone call, that desperation — I waited on the porch for them to come down the driveway. They never came."
Shortly after that, Scriven said she tried to commit suicide for the first time.
"I gassed myself," she said.
After the suicide attempt, Scriven said she and her husband began using crack cocaine. She said her husband also attempted suicide more than once.
Around that time, her sister's behaviours were getting worse, Scriven said. She described Betty Anne defecating in a container, adding water, then pouring the mixture over herself, onto the bed and the walls.
'She still had a heart rate'
The house became a biological hazard. Scriven said she and her husband decided they had to tear apart the walls and rip up floors to get them clean.
Scriven said they built an enclosure in the garage for Betty Anne to stay in while they did the renovations.
Her sister's behaviours continued. By November 2009, Scriven said, her family doctor told her the only option left was to admit Betty Anne to Alberta Hospital, where she would likely be medically sedated.
The night before she thought Betty Anne was to be sent to Alberta Hospital, Scriven said she allowed her sister to sleep on a locked school bus on the property.
The next afternoon, she found her 48-year-old sister partially unclothed on the bus — wet, cold and in medical distress.
"She still had a heart rate but she had stopped breathing," Scriven said.
Attempts to revive Betty Anne were unsuccessful.
An autopsy showed Gagnon died from severe head trauma, caused by a fall or a blow to the head.
On the witness stand, Scriven professed love for her sister and remorse for the help she wanted that never arrived.
"This is my sister and I love her so much," she said. "I didn't have a sound mind, and I made that as clear as I could."
