Victim Lucie Aylwin may have been alive for nearly two days, desperately communicating with rescue workers while buried underneath the rubble of the collapsed Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., according to new details contained in a judicial inquiry report released Wednesday.

Commissioner Paul Belanger’s long-awaited report into the collapse of the mall on June 23, 2012, includes pages of grim details about the two victims’ final moments and the frantic search for survivors buried under the rubble.

Aylwin, 37, and Doloris Perizzolo, 74, were killed, while 19 others were injured when part of the roof collapsed onto shoppers and workers below.

Perizzolo, a retired widow and mother of four, was found near a wall next to a bank of payphones, likely struck by a large amount of debris shortly after the collapse. Medical examiner Dr. Martin Queen concluded that her left carotid artery was cut, which would have triggered massive bleeding. Perizzolo likely fell unconscious immediately and was dead within a few minutes.

“Mrs. Perizzolo’s death was a tragedy,” Belanger writes. “It may be a small mercy that it was quick.”

Aylwin, however, may have been alive up to 39 hours after part of the ceiling caved in while she worked a shift at the lottery ticket kiosk. Her body was found in a void, an area not filled in with debris, which may have allowed her to drink water from a broken pipe, call out to rescuers, and tap against the concrete she was buried under.

A LifeLocator machine, which rescuers use to detect human movement underneath debris, picked up a heartbeat and breathing on the morning of June 25, nearly 48 hours after the incident.

While Queen determined that Aylwin’s death was “mostly likely near-immediate,” Belanger writes that she in fact “probably lived for some time after the initial collapse.”

Queen said he was “highly skeptical” of media reports that there were signs of life for 48 hours after the collapse, noting in particular that Aylwin’s fingernails were intact and clean. It was his opinion that she would have tried to claw her way out of the debris had she survived the initial collapse.

However, Belanger’s report details “a number of signs of life” that were reported between the initial collapse at 2:18 p.m. on June 23 and 5:30 a.m. on June 25. These details include:

  • The palms of Aylwin’s hands were wrinkled, a condition that usually develops when hands are immersed in water. Because a pipe had burst in the mall and heavy rains drenched the area, Aylwin’s cupped and wrinkled hands could suggest she had been drinking water. The medical examiner was able to conclude that Aylwin was not dehydrated, but could not say when her kidneys stopped functioning.
  • On June 23, starting at 3:28 p.m., Elliot Lake Fire Capt. JohnThomas reported hearing a muffled voice when he initially called out for survivors by yelling, “Fire Department, can you hear me?” He tried several questions, including asking for a location, and heard the muffled voice in response. He says he called out between six and 10 times over 20 minutes before he stopped.
  • On June 24, fire department sergeants called out several times asking for a number of taps to a series of questions, and received responses. Rescue dogs trained to locate live victims also gave indication that someone was buried alive beneath the rubble, while a LifeLocator machine detected a heartbeat and breathing.
  • On June 25 shortly after 5:00 a.m., one of the two canine search dogs indicated that a deceased victim was beneath the rubble.

Queen could not identify the injury that ultimately killed Aylwin, but noted several injuries that “strongly support” she suffocated due to severe chest compression.

Belanger concludes that while the fire and rescue workers were very certain of the muffled voice and the tapping that they heard, the police dogs’ work could be questioned because it is hard to say when the scent of a live victim is replaced by the scent of a dead body.

As well, the LifeLocator was not deployed according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

“One thing is clear, however. All the indications were in the same place, and that place was where Ms. Aylwin’s body was ultimately located. It is highly improbable that all the signs of life were incorrect and yet, by complete coincidence, all in the same place and where the victim was found. I can only conclude that at least some of those signs of life were probably accurate,” Belanger writes.

“I conclude that it is probable (though by no means certain) that Ms. Aylwin lived for some period of time after the initial collapse. By 5:00 a.m. on June 25, however, it is probable that she had died.”

The search for survivors was briefly called off on June 25 after two full days of round-the-clock efforts, because the mall was deemed too structurally unsound.

Efforts resumed fairly quickly after the province intervened. The two victims’ bodies were recovered early on June 27.

Belanger notes that “there exists a possibility (Aylwin) might have been rescued, but we will never know for sure.”