The Mysterious Death of Holly Bartlett

Episode 217: In the early hours of March 27, 2010, Holly Bartlett, 31, was found unconscious and badly injured under the A. Murray MacKay bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 350 metres away from her home. She died the next day in a Halifax Hospital.

Holly, a grad student at Dalhousie University, was fiercely independent despite her disability. She had been completely blind since she was thirteen years old. Holly’s autopsy indicated she’d imbibed alcohol and that she had sustained “blunt force injury to the head (…) attributable to a fall” and that the manner of death was accidental. Police did a brief investigation determining that after cabbing home from a night out with a friend, Holly became disoriented and lost due to the combination of her alcohol consumption and her blindness.

Somehow, Holly had wandered down two steeply graded streets away from her home and toward the harbour, had made her way through a hole in a chain link fence, down a steep embankment, and fell 7 metres off a concrete abutment under the bridge across Halifax harbour. They called Holly’s death accidental. Holly’s family and friends in the Justice for Holly group were not satisfied and pressed for further investigation into her death.

Sources:

What Happened to Holly Bartlett? | CNIB

Documentary What Happened to Holly Bartlett Seasons | Accessible Media Inc.

Podcast What Happened to Holly Bartlett Podcast | Accessible Media Inc.

Sights Unseen — YouTube

Holly Elizabeth Bartlett 1978-2010 – Macleans.ca

Holly Bartlett witness changes key details in death investigation | CBC News

Review to be held into blind woman’s death: Halifax police | Globalnews.ca

External review confirms 2010 death of Holly Bartlett was accidental – Halifax | Globalnews.ca

Police handling of Holly Bartlett’s death criticized in review | CBC News

Review of Investigation Into The Death of Holly Bartlett | PDF | Polygraph | Victimology

Holly Bartlett’s unlikely journey | City | Halifax, Nova Scotia | THE COAST