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Friends witnessed dramatic change in Sara Carlin Continued from page 1 3 · Thursday, June 10, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com really fun person to be around. He said she was athletically inclined and also very intelligent. She would occasionally help him with his studies even though he was a grade ahead of her. Desimo said they would go to house parties and they would drink, but said Sara would drink no more than anyone else. All this changed in 2006 when Desimo said he broke up with Sara due to her increasingly erratic behaviour. "I couldn't trust her anymore," he said. "She just became a different person." Desimo said he and Sara were fighting all the time. He said she appeared to be doing things just to get under his skin. He said Sara began to abuse drugs despite knowing Desimo had a problem with that. Further behavioural changes surfaced during a Carlin family trip to Palm Springs, which Desimo was invited to join. "During the trip, she really didn't want to do anything. She just wanted to sleep all day," he said. Desimo said Sara drank heavily during the trip. Despite breaking up with her, Desimo kept in touch with Sara until her death. He said her priorities had completely changed when she returned home after an incident at Western University in November of 2006. Sara had been attending the university to become a dermatologist, but was talking in November about becoming a flight attendant or getting a job with Molly Maid. When told by the family's lawyer Gary Will that Carlin had begun taking Paxil in February 2006, Desimo noted that was around the time the two started drifting apart. On cross-examination, GlaxoSmithKline (Paxil manufacturer) lawyer Teresa Walsh asked Desimo if Sara had said anything about Paxil making her feel better. "She just said she needed her pills," he responded. Walsh asked how much Desimo had really known about what was going on with Sara since she had only mentioned her brother Brendan to him on one or two occasions. A previous witness testified Sara was still deeply upset about her brother's drug overdose, which happened during the 1999 New Year's Eve, stating in 2006 that she wanted to be with him again. Lawyer Nancy McAuley, representing three doctors who put Sara on Paxil, also cross-examined Desimo. Under cross-examination, Desimo said Sara had occasionally smoked marijuana early in their relationship. McAuley asked if it was fair to say Sara was experimenting with different drugs. Sara's friends, Stephanie Wood and Lindsay Liptok, also testified about the changes they observed in Sara's behaviour in 2006. Wood had known Carlin since Grade 7 and described her as a smart person and a great hockey player. The two became close friends in Grade 10 and spent a great deal of time together. Wood said they would go to parties and Sara would drink alcohol, but added this was not unusual. Wood said most of her other friends started drinking around Grade 10. Wood acknowledged Sara would use marijuana on occasion, but nothing stronger. Wood said this changed in the summer of 2006. During a cottage party Sara appeared to be far more intoxicated than the others present and appeared, said Wood, to be on something besides alcohol, possibly cocaine. Sara Carlin During the party, Wood said, Sara walked out by the lake and made some unsettling statements. "She was saying nothing matters and if she fell in the water it wouldn't matter and no one should try to help her," said Wood. "She eventually listened to me and came back inside the cottage." Wood said she witnessed Sara taking her medication while intoxicated, something the literature on Paxil warns against. Will again pointed out all these behavioural changes occurred after Sara began taking Paxil. Wood said around this time Sara had also quit hockey, something that was very important to her. She said Sara had never talked about killing herself before this period. On cross-examination, Walsh drew Wood's attention to a statement she had made to the police that said Sara was suffering from depression throughout high school in connection with the death of her brother Brendan. Wood said she and Sara drifted apart following Grade 12 due to Sara's increasing use of cocaine, although she acknowledged she never actually saw her friend do it. Lindsay Liptok, Sara's roommate at Western University throughout the fall of 2006, told a similar story. Liptok had met Sara in elementary school and had stayed in touch with her when they went to different high schools. She said Sara changed from an academically and athletically focused happy person during those high school years to a person with no real ambition of any kind in university. Liptok said during her time at Western, Sara attended few classes, partied heavily and experimented with drugs. At one point, Liptok said she had to call an ambulance after Sara mixed sleeping pills, cocaine and alcohol. Sara would later tell a friend she had been high and had taken the sleeping pills to come down. "It was really not the Sara I knew," said Liptok. "She was a completely different person. She was not motivated and was sadder than I had ever seen her before. She was still fun and she was still a good friend, but you could tell she was struggling." Walsh asked if Sara had said anything about Paxil helping her. Liptok said Sara had indicated the drug had taken her nightmares away. McAuley asked if she felt Sara had needed professional help to deal with her drug problem. Liptok said yes. Liptok said Sara never spoke of hurting herself and she was shocked by her death. "She had had a lot of challenges throughout her life, but she'd always been able to overcome them," she said. with its movement containing over 150 actively moving parts, your rolex deserves quality maintenance that only a highly trained and dedicated rolex watchmaker can provide. Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-4pm