Father suspected in Merritt slayings in hospital with severe frostbite
The father suspected of killing his three children in Merritt, B.C., remained in hospital Thursday night with serious injuries, including severe frostbite in his feet.
Severely dehydrated, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, at five feet four inches, suffers injuries to his feet and lost up to one-third of his body weight, down to 90 pounds, CBC News has learned.
He collapsed Thursday morning at a police lock-up in Merritt and was rushed to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Police said it was a "medical decision" to transfer him.
Schoenborn's lawyer, Rishi Gill, appeared in court on his behalf Thursday regarding charges of uttering threats at a Merritt elementary school three days before the bodies of his children — Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8 and Cordon, 5 — were found on April 6.
Gill wouldn't talk about Schoenborn's health condition but urged the public not to jump to conclusions about his client's guilt until they hear all of the evidence in this case. The two talked for about three hours Wednesday night, police said.
"I will simply say, this matter generates, rightly so, a lot of interest in the public and the press," Gill said Thursday. "I would just ask the public to bear with the process."
Schoenborn was sleeping on a hillside at Hamilton Hill, about 10 kilometres outside Merritt, said Kim Robinson, a local hunter and tracker who found him and kept him until police arrived.
"He was just like a broken guy … He didn't eat. He didn't drink much," Robinson, 51, said Thursday.
"I gave him couple bottles of water and he just pounded them right now — drank the whole thing," the father of three said.
Schoenborn had no food or any supplies with him, just his dog, when he was found, Robinson said.
Between April 6 to April 16, temperatures in the Merritt area were hovering around 0 C, with lows dipping to –6 C on the 13th and 14th, according to Environment Canada figures.
Schoenborn has not been charged in the deaths of his three children. He is currently being held on an arrest warrant for earlier charges and a bail hearing is scheduled for May 2.
Court documents obtained by CBC News earlier this month show Schoenborn was charged with breaching a restraining order over a threat of violence against Darcie Clarke, the mother of his children, last August. The restraining order was granted after an incident in Vancouver in May.
Schoenborn is also charged with sexual assault against a Vancouver woman in May and a breach of his bail conditions on that charge six months later.
He pleaded guilty to drinking and driving last November. Part of his sentence included a one-year driving ban, but he broke that after one month, the records show.
Private funeral for three children: mayor
Merritt Mayor David Laird told CBC News on Thursday that Clarke, the children's mother, was still in the hospital and he didn't know if she had heard the news.
"She's still not out in the community at all," he said.
Laird also said he believed the funeral for the children, which is being handled by social services, would be private.
Val Truthwaite, Schoenborn's cousin who lives in Manitoba, said she was surprised the man was found alive.
"I'm just overwhelmed with all kinds of feelings," she told CBC News. "Relief and hurting. I'm hurting for the family."
Truthwaite also said she hoped people would contribute to a trust fund set up to help the children's mother pay for their funerals.
"She has an unbelievable task to do. She has to bury her three children, so she has that expense. And also, she's going to need a place to live. They're destroying the mobile home, of course."