Pathologist tells inquest Myles Sanderson died of cocaine toxicity

A pathologist says Myles Sanderson died from cocaine toxicity shortly after his arrest in September of 2022.

Dr. Shaun Ladham, Saskatchewan’s chief forensic pathologist, performed the autopsy on Sanderson. Testifying Tuesday afternoon at the coroner’s inquest into the mass murderer’s death, Ladham said Sanderson’s death was a product of acute cocaine toxicity.

“Cocaine toxicity was in the lethal range,” the pathologist said.

While cocaine was the primary cause of Sanderson’s death, Ladham noted that he couldn’t rule out atherosclerosis – a buildup of plaque in the lining of arteries – as a secondary cause.

The left ventricle of Sanderson’s heart, Ladham explained, was between 80 and 90 per cent blocked, which could trigger a cardiac arrhythmia.

Ladham said Sanderson had 6.5 milligrams of cocaine per litre of blood and had metabolized cocaine in his blood.

“There was so much cocaine there,” Ladham testified.

Dr. Jennifer Billinsky, who did the post-mortem toxicology tests on Sanderson, testified that the level of cocaine in his system was “one of the highest levels I’ve ever seen in my career.”

Billinsky said the average level of cocaine in the blood in a fatal overdose that she has seen is 0.6 milligrams per litre, meaning Sanderson had more than 10 times that amount in his blood. She added there wasn’t any fentanyl or meth found in his system.

The naloxone administered by police shortly after Sanderson’s arrest would not have reversed the effects of cocaine, the pathologist added, as it is meant for opioids.

During the first day of the inquest Monday, jurors were shown RCMP dashcam video of a high-speed chase and heard how a Mountie used her vehicle to ram into the truck Sanderson was driving.

The truck went into a ditch off a highway north of Saskatoon. The inquest heard Sanderson had a medical emergency as he was taken into custody and died in hospital.

Sgt. Ken Kane, a detective with Saskatoon police, testified Tuesday during the second day of a coroner’s inquest into the mass killer’s death.

He described the video of Sanderson’s arrest, saying the 32-year-old Sanderson expressed shock that “nobody even shot at me, man.”

“You should have shot me,” Sanderson says repeatedly to officers in the video.

Kane, one of the officers tasked with investigating the in-custody death, said he interviewed 15 officers as well as paramedics during his probe into Sanderson’s death.

Kane told the inquest there was no evidence officers injured Sanderson, either during the manoeuvre that took Sanderson’s getaway vehicle off the road or during the arrest.

Kane said the RCMP video shows Sanderson starting to convulse. An officer asks Sanderson if he has taken anything, Kane said, and Sanderson responds with a word that sounds like “meth.”

Officers located in the vehicle a rolled-up $20 bill and bag of white powder. On Tuesday, Billinsky testified the bill and the powder both tested positive for cocaine.

She noted the powder also was sent to a federal lab and had 90 per cent purity.

Asked how long Sanderson would have lived given the high toxicity in his system, Billinsky said the side effects likely would have been seen in 15 to 20 minutes.

Jurors at the inquest also heard how Sanderson asked RCMP how many people he had killed as he was taken into custody.

“How many bodies did I get?” Sanderson said in video captured on RCMP dashboard cameras.

Three days before he was captured, Sanderson went from home to home on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon, kicking in doors and attacking people. Eleven people were killed and 17 others were injured.

Sanderson had been on the run for several days when police caught up to him on Sept. 7, 2022.

RCMP officer recounts stopping Sanderson

Const. Heidi Marshall was the RCMP officer who knocked the stolen Chevy Avalanche off Highway 11 and into the ditch.

Marshall became emotional during her testimony as she described arriving on the highway just as Sanderson was coming off Highway 312.

Marshall, who was one of the leaders of the chase as Sanderson headed southbound in the northbound lanes of Highway 11, was asked what was going through her mind.

“I have two little kids at home and when we were southbound at those high speeds, the thing that I remember at the time was, ‘What’s going to happen with my kids? Am I going to leave them without a mom?’ ” Marshall replied.

The RCMP officer executed the precision immobilization technique (PIT) manoeuvre to get Sanderson’s vehicle into the ditch after he had returned to the southbound lanes.

The inquest previously heard how Sanderson was able to evade capture for three days and seven hours after the killings.

A call came in to police from a woman who said Sanderson had broken into her home and stolen her truck. It set off a rapid search throughout the area for the truck and Sanderson.

The manhunt ended after Marshall executed the PIT manoeuvre.

Saskatoon police officer addresses search for Sanderson

During the first inquest, part of the testimony dealt with Sanderson’s time on statutory release and the search for him after he breached the conditions of his release before the killings on Sept. 4, 2022.

On Tuesday, Kane was asked why the Saskatoon police didn’t arrest Sanderson after he breached the conditions. Kane noted that police had nearly 2,000 warrants, with 1,573 of those for Saskatoon addresses.

He said a couple of house checks were done looking for Sanderson and a wanted poster was circulated among Saskatoon police officers. The Guns and Gangs Unit does warrant checks, Kane said, but it’s not their primary responsibility.

Kane admitted not a lot was done to locate Sanderson, so the veteran officer said the Saskatoon police welcomed the first inquest’s recommendations on dedicated resources to find violent offenders with warrants out for their arrest.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Lara Fominoff and Kelly Geraldine Malone of The Canadian Press