An arrest has been made in the five-and-a-half-year-old case involving the mysterious death of a toddler who collapsed at a home daycare in Strathroy.
Meggin Van Hoof, 42, who ran the unlicensed daycare, was charged with manslaughter Wednesday morning. She was to appear in Strathroy court for a bail hearing later Wednesday.
The case of Nathaniel McLellan, a 15-month-old toddler, was investigated by the Star and profiled last week in Death in a Small Town, a five-part series.
Nathaniel鈥檚 parents, Rose-Anne and Kent, have been fighting for answers in the case since he died in late October 2015. In the early days of the probe, the OPP interviewed both parents, asked if they wanted a lawyer present, and then said they were pursuing a 鈥渕anslaughter charge.鈥 Previously, the Strathroy-Caradoc police service had grilled the parents in separate interviews, and interviewed their children (aged 6, 8 and 10) without a family member present.
鈥淲e feel like the cloud of suspicion over us has been lifted,鈥 Rose-Anne told the Star on Wednesday. 鈥淲e feel our Nathaniel has been given a voice.鈥
Both parents have been critical, in previous interviews with the Star, of the way the investigation was carried out, including why it has taken so long.
鈥淭his is important for Nathaniel and for others,鈥 Kent said. 鈥淪o that the system learns from this and it does not happen again.鈥
Nathaniel McLellan, who died at age 15 months in October 2015, pictured with his dad, Kent McLellan.
Family photoOPP Det. Supt. Tina Chalk drove down from OPP headquarters in Orillia to deliver news of the arrest to the parents. The meeting took place in a room down the hallway from the interview room where Rose-Anne recalls she was 鈥渋nterrogated鈥 over the death of their son a few days after he was buried. Det. Insp. Pete Liptrott, who took over as the lead investigator in 2017, was also present at the meeting with the parents.
The charge laid against Meggin Van Hoof has not been tested in court. The Star has reached out to Van Hoof and her lawyer, Kevin Egan, but has not yet heard back.
In the fall of 2015, Nathaniel was part of a bustling family from Parkhill, Ont., living in a two-storey house nestled in farmland surrounded by cornfields and wind turbines. Kent owns a heating and air conditioning business, Rose-Anne is a teacher.
Nathaniel was the youngest of four boys. With the older boys in school, and both parents working, the family had cobbled together a child-care plan. After school, the older boys went to Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Judy鈥檚 just up the road from the McLellans until their parents came home from work. Nathaniel was looked after by neighbours three days a week, but Tuesdays and Thursdays, Rose-Anne dropped him at an unlicensed daycare in Strathroy. Rose-Anne taught elementary school a few blocks away.
As the Star previously reported, Rose-Anne dropped Nathaniel at Meggin鈥檚 at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27. She waved goodbye to her son and went to work.
Meggin, in her statement to police, said she followed a normal routine that morning, walking other children she cared for to a preschool at 9 a.m., with Nathaniel and another toddler (two and a half years old) in a wagon. She told police that after dropping the older children off, she returned to her home with Nathaniel and the other toddler for juice and snack. Sometime in the morning, as Meggin told police in an interview, Nathaniel seemed out of sorts. She did not provide timing of this in a statement obtained by the Star through the courts.
As the Star鈥檚 stories detailed, Meggin was active on social media that morning, including postings related to a home business she ran selling scents for electronic infusers and a special plastic wrap said to help people lose weight.
Meggin told police that at 11:30 a.m., while getting the two toddlers ready to take a wagon ride to collect the older children from preschool, Nathaniel collapsed on the landing of her garage. She said it happened as she was getting shoes and coats ready for the short trip to the preschool. She said she called the school to speak to Rose-Anne.
The school鈥檚 principal, Scott Askey, told police in his statement that the call from Meggin came in at 11:50 a.m. and he alerted Rose-Anne.
Rose-Anne was just about to welcome a guest speaker to her class when she was told Meggin was on the phone. (Rose-Anne did not have a cellphone at the time.) Rose-Anne said Meggin told her something was wrong with Nathaniel and Rose-Anne said she would come and get him, got into her GMC Yukon SUV and headed for Meggin鈥檚 home, 450 metres away. Just as she left school and turned the corner onto Head Street (where Meggin and Brian Van Hoof and their two children live) she saw Meggin approaching on the sidewalk, pulling a wagon, Nathaniel in her arms and another toddler running beside.
鈥淗e was stiff and I couldn鈥檛 put him in the car seat and I couldn鈥檛 buckle him in, I couldn鈥檛 move his arms,鈥 Rose-Anne recalled in an interview with the Star. 鈥淗is arms were stiff so I just put the car seat in the car and I drove to the hospital,鈥 Rose-Anne recalls. She drove as fast as she could, arriving at Strathroy hospital at 12:04 p.m.
As the Star stories detailed, police documents show no indication that Meggin called 911.
Nathaniel was examined at Strathroy hospital, then transported to a hospital in London, Ont. Tests discovered a major fracture to the back of his head (alternately described to the parents by doctors and police as an eight-, nine- or 10-centimetre fracture). He also had a bruise on his front left temple. The damage to his brain was severe and he died several days later.
Nathaniel’s mother, Rose-Anne McLellan, photographed at her son’s grave.
Lucas Oleniuk / 海角社区官网Star file photoWithin hours of him arriving at the London hospital, a senior Strathroy police detective arrived and during questioning of the parents asked if they had a life insurance policy on Nathaniel and if they owned an ATV. Kent told police they did not have such a policy but he did own an ATV, which was off limits to young children. In retrospect, Kent puts this as the moment when he realized police were focusing on him and Rose-Anne.
The Star went to court to obtain search warrant documents related to the case and learned that police quoted doctors, nurses and social workers describing what they took as odd or 鈥渂izarre鈥 behaviour by Rose-Anne in the hospital. Sources have told the Star that at least one of those people quoted by police says the detective took the person 鈥渙ut of context鈥 and that there was nothing suspicious about either parent鈥檚 behaviour. McLellan family members have pointed out in interviews with the Star that Kent and Rose-Anne were in shock. Rose-Anne later told one of the doctors that they were 鈥渏udged in our darkest moment.鈥
As the Star reported, police made three trips to the McLellan home over two weeks to conduct searches (only securing a search warrant for the final of three searches). Then, a few days after Nathaniel鈥檚 Nov. 6, 2015, funeral a Strathroy detective summoned Kent and Rose-Anne to a meeting at the Strathroy police headquarters, promising them an update on the case. That 鈥渦pdate鈥 turned out to be two separate interviews (Rose-Anne refers to them as 鈥渋nterrogations鈥) by different police officers 鈥 this time detectives from the OPP, who took over the case.
It would be two years before Rose-Anne and Kent learned 鈥 from doctors who handled Nathaniel鈥檚 treatment 鈥 that whatever happened to Nathaniel likely occurred shortly before he collapsed. Rose-Anne had dropped her son off at 8:30 a.m. and she told police he was fine, having had a fun night, a good breakfast and was behaving normally.
When the call from the OPP came in Wednesday, asking them to come to the Strathroy detachment for an update, the McLellans were preparing for their son Luke鈥檚 Grade 8 graduation. The McLellans were able to attend the meeting with the OPP and get back home in time to make sure everything was set. When Nathaniel died, Rose-Anne was pregnant with William, born in 2016. Bella was born in 2018.
鈥淲e miss our baby Nathaniel terribly and we remain ever hopeful that this will lead to justice for him and our entire family,鈥 Rose-Anne said Wednesday.
The Star has been investigating this case since 2017. OPP and Strathroy officers have declined comment on the case.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation