'She should have been safe': Family searching for answers after woman dies in Windsor, Ont. jail

Delilah Blair's grieving mother is struggling to understand how her daughter could die in jail – the one place she thought she would always be safe.

"When she was incarcerated I could sleep because I knew she wasn't on the streets," said Selina McIntyre. "She should have been safe. They should have known her history. She wasn't coming in there as a surprise."

• Female inmate at South West Detention Centre dies after being found unresponsive in cell

Blair's family has identified her as the female inmate who died by suicide Sunday at the South West Detention Centre in Windsor, Ont. 

The mother of four is the first inmate to die at the state-of-the-art facility since it opened in 2014. She was found unresponsive in her cell around 9 p.m. Corrections staff performed first aid and she was transported by ambulance to a Windsor hospital where she was declared dead. She was 30.

You just can't send me a can of dust and tell me that's my daughter. I just have to hold her and see her one more time.- Selina McIntyre

The Office of the Chief Coroner, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and Windsor police are continuing to investigate.

It is not clear how long Blair was in custody. Court documents indicate she allegedly committed a robbery using an imitation weapon on March 3. Her first court date was April 4. The charge was stayed Wednesday.

None of the official sources confirmed Blair was the woman who died, or that she took her own life, but family members said they wanted to share her story and the pain that comes from so suddenly losing a loved one.

"I know my daughter had a rough past," McIntyre said. "She had a good battle with it and she couldn't win with the drugs but giving her that last time in an institution should not have been a death sentence to her."

The kind of person you never forget

Blair was born in Fort St. John B.C., but grew up in Hay River N.W.T. 

Her brother Robert describes her as the type of person "you would never forget."

"She had a one of a kind laugh, unforgettable," he said. "She could make you laugh even through the roughest times."

When Blair turned 12 her mother said she started using drugs. What followed was a lifelong battle she never seemed to win.

"She was beautiful, she was smart, she was happy and she would give you anything but that was her downfall," McIntyre said. "She took the wrong friends … she knew she was in trouble."

Through tears the grief-stricken mother said she lost count of the number of places she followed her daughter in hopes she could help her  — from Manitoba to Edmonton and all across the Northwest Territories.

Along the way Blair gave birth to four children. Three of them live with McIntyre.

McIntyre worked with her daughter to find treatment at centres across Canada, but said Blair had become institutionalized — she was comfortable in jail or an addiction facility — everywhere else she was just "lost."

The call she never wanted to get

Even when she was living on the street, Blair would still take the time to call family every few weeks to check in, but a few months ago those calls suddenly stopped.

McIntyre asked Robert to file a missing persons report, but, before he had finished her phone rang.

The person on the other end of the line asked if she was sitting down.

"I knew that was the call I had never wanted to hear," said McIntyre.

She still finds it hard to believe her laughing, gorgeous girl is gone.

"Delilah was a fighter," she said. "Delilah was wild but it would never even cross my mind that she would attempt something like that."

Taking Delilah home

Robert said it's too painful to discuss his sister's past. The 33-year-old prefers to focus on the good times and the family's efforts to raise enough money to bring Blair home.

"I love my sister with all my heart and I'm going to miss her and it's going to be hard to let her go," he said.

They've launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost of family members travelling back to Hay River. McIntyre is also trying to find a way to afford the trip to Windsor to be with her daughter before she's cremated.

"I said 'You just can't send me a can of dust and tell me that's my daughter.' I just have to hold her and see her one more time."

'She should have been safe'

Both Robert and his mother said they are upset that Blair was able to hurt herself in a place where she was supposed to be under supervision.

• VIDEO | Tour the South West Detention Centre

They wonder how she was able to take her own life in a building full of corrections staff.

"We're just really upset about it because we figured if she was in care of that place she should have been taken care of," said Robert.

For McIntyre, the pain and confusion have left her struggling to make sense of her daughter's death.

"The thing that hurts me the most is that the place I thought she would be the safest, where I could sleep and not worry she was there, that's the last place that she left."