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Loss of younger brother weighed heavily on Carlin Continued from page 1 3 · Wednesday, June 9, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com continued until May 6, 2007 when Sara hanged herself in the basement of her family home. On Monday, Coroner's Counsel Michael Blain addressed the court describing the witnesses who would be called and the evidence that would be heard. He said the Carlin family's privacy would be respected as much as possible, but also said certain events in the family's history would have to be examined. This included the 1999 New Year's Eve death of Sara's brother Brendan, which was made all the worse for Sara and the rest of her family when police charged a close family member with allowing the death to happen. Blain talked about how Sara deeply missed Brendan and wrote this in a letter found after her death. He also referred to a passage in the letter in which she talked about the need to make herself numb to the pain she was feeling. Blain said she had been trying to do this with drugs and alcohol and to drive this point home Blain called Hayleigh Smith-Nevins to testify. Nevins, a friend of the family, who Sara had often confided in following her brother's death, talked about an encounter she had with Sara in 2006. During this encounter Nevins said Sara came to her home where she did between six "She got angry with me that I even implied that. She said she would never commit suicide. She said she loved her parents too much and would never hurt them like that." Hayleigh Smith-Nevins, friend of Sara Carlin n to eight shots of Jack Daniels in a 30-minute period. On another occasion, Nevins said Sara tried to do cocaine in Nevins' home, but before she could a horrified Nevins took the drugs from her and flushed them down the toilet. Nevins said she searched Sara's purse later that night and discovered a handful of what appeared to be ecstasy tablets. "Sara said these weren't hers and that she would be on the hook for them if I flushed them, too," said Nevins. "So I returned them." Nevins also talked about a conversation she had with Sara that year in which Sara expressed a desire to be with Brendan. "I asked her, `What are you trying to tell me?',"" said Nevins. "She got angry with me that I even implied that. She said she would never commit suicide. She said she loved her parents too much and would never hurt them like that." This statement caused audible sobs from some members of Sara's family. Blain acknowledged that Sara was on Paxil during this period, but also pointed out she was on Paxil on a later occasion when Nevins encountered her and she appeared to be better. Sadly Sara was not better. Nevins' last communication with Sara would be a text message she received before departing for her birthday party in Las Vegas. "She wrote, `I love you, let's celebrate your birthday when you get back,'" said Nevins. "The next thing I knew I was getting a phone call telling me she was gone." After an evening out with her friends, Sara had come home in the early morning hours of May 6. The next day her family found she was not in her room and initially assumed she was still out. By around 4:30 p.m. the family grew worried. Neil entered an unfinished portion of the basement, flicked on the light and found his lifeless daughter hanging by a crude noose of electrical wiring wrapped around her neck. Toxicologist Robert Langille testified Sara had both alcohol and cocaine in her system, as well as therapeutic levels of Paxil with .23mgs present per litre of blood. Langille said there was no way of determining exactly when the cocaine had been used. He said it could have been taken as long as 48 hours before. The Carlins' lawyer Gary Will asked Dr. John Fernandes, who supervised Sara's autopsy, a number of questions. These included whether he was aware of Sara's history of Paxil use, if he was aware there had been a significant decrease in the dosage she'd taken followed by a significant increase (something the literature on Paxil strongly warns against), and if he had any information on the effects such a change in dose could have? Fernandes replied no to all these questions. Blain said Health Canada advisories talking about Paxil's ability to produce suicidal thoughts in adolescents will be discussed in the days ahead, but he also pointed out the inquest will hear from an expert witness, who doesn't believe Paxil contributed to Sara's death because of the amount of time she was on Paxil, because she initially responded favourably to Paxil and because of the competing factors of drugs and alcohol. The presiding Coroner Dr. Bert Lauwers has stated the inquest is not about finding blame for Sara's death, but rather preventing similar deaths in the future. 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