By Alex Murray Writer Nearly five years after the death of Heather Winterstein, her absence still affects her family every day. That sentiment was shared by several family members during the first day of the long-awaited coroner’s inquest into the death of Winterstein, a 24-year-old Indigenous woman who died in a St. Catharines hospital in 2021. On the first day of the inquest, March 30th, the five-person jury heard from Winterstein’s mother, Francine Shimizu-Orgar, as well as her father, Mark Winterstein, her stepmother, Rosemary Ripper, and her brother, Ronan Shimizu-Obee. The inquest, before coroner and presiding officer Dr. David Eden, is being held by video conference and is expected to last 13 days and see 22 witnesses testify. Shimizu-Orgar, a Six Nations band member, talked about the guilt she felt…
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