Woman accused in drowning of girl on Alberta lake denied bail

The woman accused in the drowning death of a five-year-old girl in an Alberta lake has been denied bail.

Justice Rosanna Saccomani announced the decision in a Stony Plain courtroom on Wednesday.

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Mary Quinn, 35, is charged with failing to provide the necessities of life after the girl was found dead in Wabamun Lake west of Edmonton in October.

Quinn and the girl did not know one another.

The Crown says Quinn was under house arrest at the time of the girl's death as part of a conditional sentencing order for pushing her way into the home of a stranger armed with a gardening tool while intoxicated.

The conditional sentence was handed down less than three weeks before the drowning.

Prosecutor John Schmidt says Quinn did not get permission from her bail supervisor to be at the lake on Oct. 13.

He added the woman did not have permission from the girl's family to take her out on the lake in a canoe.

Neither Quinn or the girl wore a life jacket.

Schmidt said the girl's father began searching the lake when he realized she was missing.

He asked three fishermen in a motorboat to check on a canoe at the far end of Moonlight Bay.

Schmidt said the men saw a woman inside with one of her arms in the water and she appeared to be holding something.

Someone on shore flew a drone over the canoe, Schmidt added.

"He also saw, with the video feed of the drone, the accused holding what he believed was the young girl under the water," said Schmidt.

The girl's father approached Quinn in another boat, according to Schmidt, and asked where his daughter was.

She said she didn't know.

The father saw a foot poking out from under the canoe, so he jumped into the water, causing Quinn to fall in, Schmidt said.

He pulled the girl's body into the boat and began performing CPR.

The fishermen took the father and his daughter back to shore where paramedics took over.

The girl was later declared dead.

Quinn told bystanders that the girl had leaned over the side of the canoe and fell in the water.

She claimed the girl went to chase a duck and the boat flipped.

On the day of the death, police said they were called to the lake for a capsized canoe and a woman and girl were pulled from the water.

Quinn was arrested after Mounties said the canoe didn't capsize and the drowning was being investigated as a crime.

She appeared in court on Wednesday via closed-circuit TV from the Edmonton Remand Centre.

She yawned as Saccomani read the facts of the case and stood with her hands behind her back.

Saccomani said Quinn had been given the privilege of serving her conditional sentence in the community.

"Your compliance with release orders cannot be trusted," she said.

"You were supposed to be in your residence."

Saccomani described the victim as "highly vulnerable."

"She was taken from the safety of the beach into the water," she said.

"And while in the company of a stranger, the young child died by drowning."

The maximum sentence for failure to provide the necessities of life is five years.

Quinn's next court appearance is set for Jan. 8. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson and The Canadian Press