A mentally ill Toronto woman accused of brutally stabbing her two daughters to death in Dominica is free in Canada without supervision, her worried brother tells CityNews.
Sarah Augustine allegedly stabbed her daughters, Rachel, 5, and Sophie, two-and-a-half months, dozens of times each on September 16, 2010.
The girls were with their mother visiting relatives in Dominica – a lush island nation dotted between Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean sea.
Immediately following the alleged crimes, the distraught mother tried unsuccessfully to end her own life.
A Canadian psychiatrist was sent to Dominica to assess her, finding that she was bi-polar and suffered from post-partum psychosis.
“I couldn’t think straight. I saw the knives. The next thing I remember was that Sophie was choking. I suddenly realized something was wrong and she was dying,” the accused mother said during the assessment.
Augustine was charged with two counts of murder, but was never tried. Despite the gravity of her alleged crimes, her trial in Dominica was discontinued — essentially paused with no plea entered, and no verdict rendered after the government said it didn’t have the expertise to deal with her psychiatric issues.
She was handed over to her brother in Canada, Dennis Augustine, with just a promise — but no official order — to get treatment.
Dennis says in early 2012 his sister returned to Canada with no monitoring and no record here of the alleged crime in Dominica.
She voluntarily committed herself to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, but checked herself out after just two months.
Dennis has been on a relentless mission to have his sister tried for the alleged crimes and to obtain an order to get treatment.
He says his biggest fear is that she could become a mother again, with no one knowing about her past — and the horrific crimes she’s alleged to have committed could be repeated.
He says it’s out of love for his murdered nieces and a concern for his sister that he has for four years hounded the governments of both Dominica and Canada.
In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs refuses to answer questions, saying “to protect the private and personal information of the individual concerned, further details on this case can not be released.”
Dennis says the murders of two Canadian children is not a private matter and has launched this petition – https://www.change.org/petitions/hon-john-baird-two-children-dead-act-to-conclude-this-matter-now.
Source: 680 NEWS, Toronto
