Slain London woman tried desperately to get help in the hours before her death

A woman allegedly killed by her boyfriend was turned away from one London shelter the day she was found severely injured in her apartment and never arrived at the second shelter where she had secured a bed, CBC News has learned. 

Cheryl Sheldon, 62, died early Saturday morning in hospital after being found in her home in the housing complex at 345 Wharncliffe Rd. N., near Western Road. 

George Kenneth Curtis, 44, is charged with second-degree murder. The victim's friends have identified him as her boyfriend. 

CBC News has spoken to two people who confirmed that on the day before her death, Sheldon reached out to three organizations that help women flee abusive relationships. CBC News has agreed not to identify these people because it could impact their employment.

"She did everything right and she should be alive," said one person involved in the process.  

Sheldon contacted the London Abused Women's Centre that Friday, who referred her to Anova, which operates shelters for people fleeing abuse. There were no beds available, CBC has learned.  

Anova is forced to turn away five to seven women in crisis every day because its shelter beds are full, said executive director Jessie Rodger. These are women who meet the organization's mandate of needing an immediate, high security place to go. 

"Resources are stretched, the phone is ringing off the hook, and it is incredibly difficult for all of us to be able to meet the great demand that is happening in our city and our region right now," Rodger said, who could not comment on Sheldon's specific case because of privacy laws.

CBC News has learned that Anova referred Sheldon to Zhaawanong, a 24-hour emergency shelter for Indigenous women, where she was told she could have a spot for the night.

Sheldon never made it, said Dennis Whiteye, a director with Atlohsa Family Healing Services, which operates the Zhaawanong shelter, but said she was registered for a bed. 

Public housing protocols 

Friend and neighbour Louise Phillips also told CBC News that Sheldon tried to get help from the community safety unit or a community relations worker employed by London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) prior to her death. Phillips said the victim had asked them to remove the man she was living with, who was not on her lease. 

A spokesperson for LMCH said he couldn't comment specifically on anything related to Sheldon's death or what interactions, if any, she had with housing staff, because of privacy legislation. 

"Staff are trained to recognize the different levels of urgency and follow our internal process," communications manager Matt Senechal told CBC News when asked about how emergencies are triaged.

CBC also asked: 

• Did staff follow proper protocol when handling any request from the tenant to have someone from her unit removed? 
• Will there be a review about how this incident was handled by staff? 
• If there will be a review, will it be made public? 

Senechal did not answer those questions. How exactly community safety situations are triaged is a procedural matter and not part of any policy, he said. 

After spending years living on London's streets, Sheldon moved into the public housing complex last fall after breaking her hip and having her application for a subsidized apartment expedited.

'System not working'

Sheldon's desperate search for help in the hours before her death underscore the need for more resources for women in London and the broader community, the people on the front lines of victim services agree.

London declared intimate-partner violence and femicide an epidemic last year. Three London women were part of a list of 62 killed in Ontario in 2023, allegedly at the hands of their partners. 

SafeSpace London, a drop-in shelter for vulnerable women where Sheldon had sought refuge in the past, was closed the day Sheldon was looking for a bed. The city's funding to the organization was not renewed this past spring. 

"My reaction was, 'Oh no, not again.' Too many women have lost their lives to male violence," said Jennifer Dunn, the executive director of London Abused Women's Centre. 

"There needs to be so much more funding available for shelters and resources for women. Shelters are always full, and that's not helpful for women who need to leave an abusive partner at the drop of a hat and have nowhere to go. That means the system is not working," Dunn said. 

Although Sheldon moved into her own apartment after years on the street, she needed more support to help her thrive, Dunn and Rodger agree. They said the reasons why a woman lives with violence doesn't disappear when housing is secured.

London Morning7:14Three London women died by femicide in the last year

The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses released their annual femicide list this week. Of the 62 women who died by femicide in the past year, three of them were from London. London Abused Women's Centre Executive Director Jennifer Dunn joined London Morning to discuss the ongoing tragedy of femicide and what more needs to be done to stop it.

"A Band-Aid approach isn't the answer," Whiteye said. "The healing, the work, the medicine, the nurturing that comes from being with community, with those who know your name, your kin folk, those indescribable feelings of belonging — those are also wraparound services." 

London has put the safety of women, girls, and gender-diverse and trans people as one of its strategic pillars.

"It's a big, complex, systemic issue," said Trevor Fowler, the city employee in charge of that file. "The work is far from done. As much as we're working on this, we need to be doing more. It isn't enough until it stops happening," he said.