In the summer of 2024, the North Vancouver RCMP issued a press release asking the public to keep an eye out for James Beick-Fowler. The 26-year-old North Vancouver man was known to move around the North Shore, Surrey and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but hadn’t been seen in months.
His mostly skeletal remains were found inside North Vancouver's abandoned Maplewood Pub on Spicer Street in April 2025 – more than a year after his likely overdose death.
The discovery brought some closure for Heather Fowler, Beick-Fowler's mother, who said she spent more than a decade trying to get him the help he needed. But she laments that her son's story was allowed to come to such a tragic end.
“He suffered from mental illness and, subsequently, drug addiction, and received zero help and ended up being homeless and squatting in this building, and he overdosed...,” she said. “His remains had been rotting there since March of 2024 and nobody knew.”
Fowler said it became apparent that her son was going to need more help in 2010. He had already been diagnosed with autism and ADHD but he was getting into trouble, including an incident in which he brought bombs to school. This brought the attention of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
“My son was a very mild-mannered, shy, quiet, sweet kid who got lost in the cracks, so then he was on his own with the ministry,” she said. “I begged. I was in a meeting with my case manager and a manager at the ministry, and I said ‘Please, can you put him in a group home? He needs some structure and somebody to watch out for him.’”
Beick-Fowler worked part-time in restaurants through a program operated by the ministry and later in a cabinet-making shop, but when he was about 19, Beick-Fowler went through a bad break-up and twice attempted to take his own life. It was later that year that he was deemed by a social worker to be “not fit” for inclusion in work programs, Fowler said.
“As soon as my son heard that, he just spiralled,” she said, adding Beick-Fowler would sleep for days or spend days ranting and doing more hard drugs. “He had to self medicate and got addicted and they just let him go.”
Fowler said her son was showing signs of being bipolar though he was not ever diagnosed. As the years went on, he became more and more unstable and paranoid. He started hoarding things in his basement apartment and writing on the walls. Fowler said she showed pictures of the scene to social workers who’d been working with him, which resulted in the RCMP sending Car 22 – their mental health response unit – but James ran when he saw police at the door, Fowler said.
By the fall of 2023, things were coming to a head. In October, he had been evicted and, in the midst of a drug-induced psychotic breakdown, went to his family’s home in Sechelt where he held his brother at gunpoint, Fowler said.
He was taken into custody under the Mental Health Act but was released the next day after a virtual meeting with a doctor, Fowler said.
Fowler met up with her son again in November. At that time, he had no ID, no home and no treatment plan, but he did tell his mom we wanted intake at the HOpe centre, she said.
“He said he wanted to see a psychiatrist, and that’s pretty brave for somebody who’s struggling with drugs and mental health issues to request,” she said. “He just hugged me and said, ‘Mom, I’ll be all right.'"
Over Fowler’s objections, her adult son wasn’t admitted.
“That was the last day I saw my son,” she said.
The health authority did make appointments with clinicians and a social worker available, but Beick-Fowler didn’t have the wherewithal to follow through on his own care, which is precisely part of the problem, Fowler said. He was paranoid and wouldn’t sign consent forms. And by that point, her son had no reason to believe anyone in the health care system actually cared for him, she said.
“It was up to James to come to those meetings, which he wouldn’t,” she said. “People like that can just get thrown off the charts, and if somebody is just kind of quiet and mild mannered, they just get left behind.”
Fowler said she still believed her son could be a danger to himself or others and once more, the family sought to have him brought to the HOpe Centre under the Mental Health Act that December. After her younger son spotted Beick-Fowler in the Superstore parking lot, he was brought in but, once again, released shortly after.
Members of the family remained in contact with Beick-Fowler as late as the end of January, 2024. They reported him missing not long after.
On April 25, 2025 – well over a year since he was last seen – prospective tenants coming through the shuttered Maplewood Pub came upon his remains, which by that point, could only be identified with dental records.
“The coroner basically described him as mummified. There was a small portion of flesh on his left calf that they’re doing toxicology on, and there was a bottle of government Dilaudid that he doesn’t have a prescription for... and a syringe and a pipe by his side,” she said.
In those circumstances, it becomes very difficult for toxicology tests to yield definitive answers, Fowler said.
The provincial health officer’s 2024 report on safe supply found synthetic opioid drugs like fentanyl were detected in 80 per cent of unregulated drug deaths since 2017 while methamphetamine or amphetamine was detected in 47 per cent in 2023. That same report notes there was no indication that hydromorphone medications like Dilaudid were driving unregulated drug deaths.
A 2024 coroner’s report on unregulated drug toxicity deaths in youths found zero instances of fatal overdoses caused solely by hydromorphone between 2019 and 2023.
According to the BC Coroners Service, there were 25 confirmed unregulated drug deaths in North Vancouver in 2024, only about one per cent of the total in B.C, but the highest year on record here.
On the North Shore, there are no supervised consumption sites where trained staff can jump into action in the event of an overdose but, Fowler said, it was apparent that her son was intent on being alone. There was evidence he’d been living in the empty pub for some time.
Fowler said she also doesn’t agree with the government providing “safe supply” drugs, which she said is only making matters worse. The focus should instead be on rehabilitation with therapy oriented towards patients getting sober and building work and life skills and a sense self-worth, she said.
They don’t know when he actually passed away, but the most recent receipt in his pocket was dated March 10, 2024, around the time all activity on his bank account stopped. Among many other unanswered questions, Fowler said she couldn’t understand how someone’s body can remain in a commercial building for more than a year without anyone noticing. There are too many vacant buildings around where people can slip by without notice from wider society, she said.
Vancouver Coastal Health responds
Due to privacy rules, Vancouver Coastal Health can’t provide comment on the details related to former patients or the care they received, but the health authority did provide a statement.
“Vancouver Coastal Health is committed to caring for everyone, which includes ensuring people have access to the best care possible when and where they need it. This is a heartbreaking loss and VCH shares our deepest condolences with the family and loved ones of James Beick-Fowler,” it read. “In general, physicians operate under the Mental Health Act, which sets out criteria when certifying patients to involuntary care. Patients brought to VCH by family members for mental health support, who do not meet the criteria for certification, must voluntarily remain onsite to receive care. As part of the continuum of care, VCH also provides additional supports and resources on mental health and substance use services to family members concerned about the well-being of a loved one.”
The Ministry of Children and Family Development, similarly, said it could not comment on an individual client’s services, but did send a statement acknowledging the heartbreaking loss.
“Our priority is always the safety and well-being of youth and youth aging into adulthood. The province is committed to providing services to vulnerable people, including young adults, with a focus on prevention and early intervention, so we can avoid problems becoming worse over time,” it read. “We know youth aging out of government care have had to deal with higher rates of homelessness and mental health concerns. That is why we fully launched our SAJE program in 2024, to offer a range of supports for former youth in care from age 19 and up to 27. When youth are still in care, the ministry works with the family to address challenges and set each young person up for a stable and meaningful future.”
Fowler, though, said she grew exasperated hearing about the limitations of the health care system, something other parents of adults with addiction and mental health issues know too well.
“They’ve been telling that to us for 30 years now, and I just wish that they would have some heart in them to advocate for change, because anybody can see that this is not working. We all know it,” said. “He’s an example of everything that’s wrong in our system right now.”
Anyone brought into custody under the Mental Health Act should be kept for 30 days of observation and treatment before they can be released, Fowler said. Similarly, they should be admitted for that long at least when it is at their own request, she said.
“It’s very frustrating. We need many changes in our system. The next day, somebody’s not high anymore so that doctor never got to observe them when they’re freaking out,” she said.
While the B.C. government is beginning to use involuntary commitment for patients with extreme cases of overlapping brain injuries and addiction, Fowler said there should be greater emphasis on providing compassionate and effective care from the earliest possible point to keep people in the system and on the right path.
“I think if these folks see that they’re cared for, and they learn that trust from being in a caring and loving and nurturing rehabilitative environment, they would find some self worth. There are a lot of people who have gone that road and they end up rehabilitating,” she said.
This story has been amended to include more statistics and remove speculative quotes.
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