Gas leak claims constable's family
MORRIS LAMONT/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Police entered home after Const. Hawkins was a no-show at work. Neighbours had seen uncleared snow piling up.
OPP officer clings to life after husband, two kids found dead near her in Woodstock home
Dec 02, 2008 04:30 AM
Kenyon Wallace
Staff Reporter
An Ontario Provincial Police officer was clinging to life last night after she was found yesterday with the bodies of her husband and two children in their Woodstock home in an apparent case of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Const. Laurie Hawkins, 41, was found unconscious near her husband Richard, 40, daughter Cassandra, 14, and son Jordan, 12, around 11 a.m. when police colleagues forced their way into the family home after Hawkins failed to turn up for work.
She was taken to Toronto General Hospital where she remained last night. The three others were pronounced dead at the scene.
Oxford Community Police investigators would not say whether they were treating the deaths as suspicious but said the three appeared to have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. The Oxford County police would not say whether suicide had been ruled out.
Hawkins, a well-known community and media relations officer with the Oxford OPP, has 20 years of service with the force and was described as "a superb officer" by her supervisor, Sgt. David Rektor.
"She is very well-respected within the OPP," Rektor said. "It's a very tragic event and we're hoping for recovery for Laurie."
Neighbours described the Hawkins as a nice, average family who took pride in keeping their three-bedroom bungalow on Chippewa Ave. "immaculate."
One, Ken Boudreau, said residents began to notice snow piling up on the family's pickup truck and minivan, and walkways around the home. When his Friday and Monday morning newspaper didn't arrive, Boudreau says he started to wonder. Twelve-year-old Jordan Hawkins was his paperboy.
After seeing a police cruiser drive by yesterday morning, Boudreau decided to walk down the street and discovered five cruisers in front of the Hawkins home. A Union Gas truck was also on the scene, according to another neighbour.
"I saw Laurie being put on a stretcher on her front porch," he said. "This is pretty scary stuff, to lose a whole family. I'm shocked."
By afternoon, yellow tape surrounded the Hawkins home and several police forensics vans were parked on the street.
Liz Check, who lives just two doors down, described the Hawkins as a happy family who loved the outdoors. A few years back, her kids used to babysit Jordan and Cassandra.
"It doesn't seem real," she said.
While Laurie Hawkins distinguished herself as a community and media relations officer with the OPP, her career hasn't been without hardship.
In January 1994, Hawkins testified she had been sexually harassed by a senior officer at the disciplinary hearing for an Ingersoll police inspector.
"In the process of seeking justice I have lost my high ideal of what police officers ought to be," Hawkins said at the time. "In life, not all police officers are honourable."
The inspector, a 27-year veteran on the force, ended up pleading guilty to discreditable conduct and took early retirement.
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