NWT family embarks on journey to Windsor to 'get the answers' about daughters' death in jail

Delilah Blair’s mother and aunt are about to drive to Windsor, a 3,000-kilometre trek from Northwest Territories, to arrive in time for a scheduled inquest.

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“I promised her no matter how long it took or what I had to do, we're gonna find the answers to what happened that night,” Selina McIntyre told CTV News in a virtual interview.Selina McIntyre lives in Hay River, North West Territories. Her daughter, Delilah Blair died after being an inmate at the Southwest Detention Centre. (CTV News Windsor)

McIntyre’s daughter, Delilah Blair, 30, died on May 21, 2017 after she was rushed from the Southwest Detention Centre (SWDC) to hospital.

“She was beautiful inside and out,” McIntyre said. “She had a glow on her if she walked in the room you could feel her. She was always laughing, joking.”

McIntyre said the “problems began” when Blair’s middle school merged with the high school and at 12 years old, her daughter started to hang out “with the wrong crowd.”

“She had lots of potential. It was just drugs. They came in and then as you know, they don't discriminate,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre said her daughter entered rehab on numerous times, but always ran away.

On more than 30 occasions, McIntyre was forced to drive to other cities, even other provinces, to pick her daughter up and bring her home.

“She was good at home. She said there was no temptations at home,” said McIntyre. “But she would go back out with the friends and she'd go back to Edmonton. She'd go back to where her friends were and then the cycle just kept going on like that.”

McIntyre says her daughter would call home, frequently, to talk to her mother, and her four children. Three of whom McIntyre is now raising.Delilah Blair poster. (Source: Selina McIntyre)

“We still look for that phone call,” said McIntyre “She had all intentions of being a mom one day to be with her kids. She was constantly calling with her kids, FaceTiming with her kids, sending CDs (for) storytimes.”

In 2017, the calls stopped coming. McIntyre was in the process of getting police to issue a missing persons report, when a call from Ontario came to their home.

“I asked her is she dead? That's really all that I remember from that call,” said McIntyre, who didn’t even know Blair was living in Windsor, let alone had been arrested and incarcerated at the Southwest Detention Centre.

McIntyre doesn’t know what charges, if any, her daughter was facing but says authorities told her Blair had been at SWDC for a month before her death.

“They (authorities) said this is self-inflicted, and that she apparently hung herself in her cell,” according to McIntyre.

McIntyre drove to Windsor in 2017 plan her daughters funeral.

“I was able to hold her for quite a while and prepare her for a small service because all the kids had written a letter to her and gave her something that was close to them that went with her,” said McIntyre.

After the inquest into her daughters death, McIntyre said she will then lay her daughter to rest.

“We're close to the finish line,” said McIntyre.

A coroners inquest will begin Mon. June 20, at the Holiday Inn on Huron Church Road. A jury is expected to hear from 17 witnesses over nine days and will draft recommendations aimed at preventing further inmate deaths.

McIntyre told CTV News she cannot fly so she and her sister will leave Hay River on June 16, to drive the 3,016 kilometres to Windsor.

Complicating matters for them is flooding in their town. McIntyre was evacuated from her home for 10 days this spring. And while her house didn’t suffer any serious damages, money is tight and the trip to Windsor expensive.

One of her sons has created a Facebook page called “Justice for Delilah Blair” to help raise some money to pay for the cross-country trip.

McIntyre knows her daughters final moments will be a big part of the inquest and they will be difficult to hear. But it’s something she says she must go through for “her baby.”

“I’ll be thankful to get the answers I need,” McIntyre said.