Tiffany Gates' family critical of police refusal to call her death a murder-suicide

London Police Service says privacy legislation is preventing it from releasing the names and cause from the death of a couple found dead inside a London apartment last fall, despite calls from family members to make the murder-suicide public.

The mother of victim Tiffany Gates has repeatedly asked that her daughter's death be made public to highlight intimate partner violence. Experts who work to prevent it say police refusing to report details erases patterns of gender-based violence. 

Gates, 30, was found in her boyfriend's apartment with the body of a man, later identified by Gates' family as boyfriend Chris Charlton on Sept. 7. At the time, police said a firearm was recovered at the scene and there was no threat to the public. 

Police said Tuesday that the coroner had completed the investigation and that no further information could be provided, as privacy legislation applies even when both parties are dead. CBC News has asked for clarification and will update this story when more information is available. 

"That's what really bothers me," said Linda Davidson, Gates' mother, when she learned the police were not making further details public. "He will never be remembered for what he did. He killed her."

Davidson said her family was told last week that Gates was sitting on the couch when she was shot. Gates said police told her Charlton shot himself afterward, but she said they won't say how long afterward. 

Late last year, CBC News spoke to multiple people about how police report femicides and crimes linked to intimate partner violence. Many said there are inconsistencies in reporting, which obscure the facts and make finding patterns difficult. 

"When we actually compile the list [of killings of women by men] it's really hard for us to figure out what femicides happened because police are refusing to name it," Aline Vlasceanu said in December. She runs the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime.  

Sixty-two women, children and gender-diverse people in Ontario were identified by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) and the University of Guelph as victims of a gender-related killing by a man in 2023. Gates was on that list. 

Meanwhile, the London police continue to ask the public for information about the death of Gates and Charlton, saying they can call Crime Stoppers to report what they know.