Canada's mass killer might die from cocaine overdose: pathologist

A forensic pathologist told a public coroner's inquest on Tuesday that the man who killed 11 people and injured 17 others in 2022 might die from an acute cocaine overdose, reported Xinhua, quoting local media.

Myles Sanderson stabbed 11 people into death, 10 in his home community of James Smith Cree Nation and another in the nearby village of Weldon, Saskatchewan on Sept. 4, 2022. He died later that day while in police custody. The inquest is expected to rule on Sanderson's cause of death.

CTV News reported Tuesday afternoon that the inquest heard testimony from Dr. Shaun Ladham, who performed the autopsy on Sanderson. Ladham said there were very high levels of cocaine in Sanderson's body.

Ladham said the amount of cocaine would potentially be enough to cause heart failure, CTV News reported.

According to CBC News, Jennifer Bilinsky, the forensic toxicologist who performed the toxicology test on Sanderson, said there were no signs of alcohol, fentanyl or methamphetamine in his blood, but the cocaine found in Sanderson's possession was highly potent.

Bilinsky referred to a case study of 700 incidents of fatal cocaine overdoses where the average blood/cocaine concentration was 10-times less than the level found in Sanderson's blood, CBC News reported.