Friend calls for charges in date-rape drugging that hospitalized her and killed Victoria teen
Brooklyn Friese says she's hopeful there may be justice after friend's drug death reclassified as homicide
It's been almost four years since Brooklyn Friese survived a potentially fatal dose of a date-rape drug.
But it's only now that she's speaking out about her experience on that April night in 2021 — when her 18-year-old friend Samantha Sims-Somerville died of the same drug — because for the first time Friese feels like she might be taken seriously.
That's in large part because the B.C. Coroners Service reclassified Sims-Somerville's death from an accidental overdose to a homicide late last year.
Homicide is a neutral term that does not imply blame but indicates death occurred due to the actions, whether direct or indirect, of another person.
Before then, Friese says she saw no path to justice for her friend and didn't believe her voice could change that — despite feeling comfortable speaking on the incident for more than a year.
"I just figured nothing would ever happen," she said.
But now, Friese has some hope.
"If I at least try to get my voice out there, maybe other people will too, maybe someone will listen," Friese said. "That's all I could hope for."
On April 9, 2021, Friese and her friend Sims-Somerville attended a small gathering at a Victoria residence.
Around 3 a.m., people at the gathering called 911 after both women were found unresponsive. They were transported to the ICU and placed on life support — Friese survived, but Sims-Somerville died later that evening.
Sims-Somerville was 18 years old. Friese was 20.
Sims-Somerville's death was first determined to have been an accidental overdose. But on March 5, 2024, the chief coroner of the B.C. Coroners Service reopened their investigation.
New information was made available, and the coroners service reclassified Sims-Sommerville's death to a homicide after determining she and Friese had been "intentionally" given a lethal dosage of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) — a depressant known as the date-rape drug — combined with alcohol "without their knowledge."
Criminal charges were never originally laid in the case and in November, following the reclassification, the Victoria Police Department told CBC News it is not currently conducting further investigations.
Friese's experience with authorities
Friese, now 24, doesn't feel like police did enough to figure out what happened.
She says officers came to speak with her when she was in the hospital, but that she was "completely out of it."
"I just woke up from being on a ventilator."
The day after she was discharged, a detective followed up with her and asked her some more questions.
"I was barely there; I wasn't coherent like usual," Friese said. "I just told him what I could, which wasn't much."
Friese says the detective checked in with her twice more and she tried to give him leads to investigate, such as contacts for people at the gathering and a picture of Friese unconscious that she claims a party attendee took and sent to another person that night.
Friese says she doesn't know if he ever followed up on the information.
She only heard from him a year later when he asked if she had seen or drank out of a water bottle that night. She told him she couldn't be sure, and took the inquiry to mean the detective thought she and Sims-Somerville had consumed the drug themselves.
"So a year later, there's a water bottle, and we did it ourselves — to ourselves — and they closed the case."
Friese says she fell into a deep depression for two years after the drugging.
"At first, there was a lot of anger and sadness," Friese said. "This mostly turned to numbness and losing faith in what we call our justice system."
She says she's also struggled with some guilt over the fact that she pulled through while her friend did not.
"Sometimes I do ask myself, why did I survive? What was the reason?" Friese said. "If there is a reason, I would hope for it to be at least to get justice."
No updates from authorities
Sims-Somerville's mother, Tracy Sims, shares similar frustrations. She says she doesn't believe police followed up on important information in their initial handling of the case.
She has filed a complaint with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) against specific officers at the Victoria Police Department. The OPCC told CBC News in a statement that the Vancouver Police Department is investigating the allegations of police misconduct, with oversight from a retired judge.
Last November, VicPD said it was not conducting further investigations but would review evidence already collected in the Sommerville-Sims case. The department added it would contact the B.C. Coroners Service for more details on the reclassification of the 18-year-old's death.
In a statement to CBC News this week, the police department said it has no further updates at this time and cannot discuss the case while it is under OPCC investigation.
Calling for accountability
Moving forward, Friese's mom Jaime Friese says she would like to see a clear investigative process that is communicated to victims.
"There needs to be accountability, thorough investigations, and just consideration in communicating with families and the victims in terms of no stereotypes or judgment in who they are," Jaime said, noting she felt like police assumed Friese and Sommerville-Sims were just being reckless.
"You talk to generations of women who have been impacted by drugs and it's more common [than people think]," she said. "There needs to be accountability for those things happening in our world."
For Friese, she hopes some form of justice eventually comes.
"I think there should be charges laid on somebody; I don't think you can accidentally kill someone and get away from it. Whether it was intentional or not, we were administered a very large amount of the date rape drug."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Akshay Kulkarni