Coroner deems Victoria teen’s death a homicide after reopening investigation [Video]

Three and a half years after losing her only child, a Victoria mother has confirmed something she has long believed: her daughter’s death was not an accident.

The B.C. Coroners Service has ruled Samantha Sims-Somerville’s death a homicide, after initially classifying it an accidental overdose, according to her mother, Tracy Sims.

Samantha was 18 when she died in April 2021, after attending a party at a Victoria apartment. An autopsy determined she had fatal a combination of GHB — commonly known as the “date rape drug” — and alcohol in her system, though Sims said Samantha’s blood-alcohol level was below the legal limit.

Sims has spent the past several years compiling evidence, including screenshots of texts from people at the party saying Samantha and one of her friends, who survived, were drugged. Some of the people there that night were convicted drug traffickers, Sims said in previous interviews.

The coroner …