Father suspected in Merritt slayings in hospital with frostbite

The father suspected of killing his three children in Merritt, B.C., remained in hospital Thursday night with serious injuries, including severe frostbite in his feet.

Severely dehydrated, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, at 5 feet 4 inches, suffers injuries to his feet and lost up to one-third of his body weight, down to 90 pounds, CBC News has learned.

He collapsed Thursday morning at a police lock-up in Merritt and was rushed to. Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Police said it was a "medical decision" to transfer him.

Schoenborn's lawyer, Rishi Gill, appeared in court on his behalf Thursday regarding charges of uttering threats at a Merritt elementary school three days before the bodies of his children — Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8 and Cordon, 5 — were found on April 6.

Gill wouldn't talk about Schoenborn's health condition but urged the public not to jump to conclusions about his client's guilt until they hear all of the evidence in this case. The two talked for about three hours Wednesday night, police said.

"I will simply say, this matter generates, rightly so, a lot of interest in the public and the press," Gill said Thursday. "I would just ask the public to bear with the process."

Schoenborn was sleeping on a hillside at Hamilton Hill, about 10 kilometres outside Merritt, said Kim Robinson, a local hunter and tracker who found him and kept him until police arrived.

"He was just like a broken guy.… He didn't eat. He didn't drink much," Robinson, 51, said Thursday.

"I gave him couple bottles of water and he just pounded them right now — drank the whole thing," the father of three said.

Schoenborn had no food or any supplies with him, just his dog, when he was found, Robinson said.

Between April 6 to April 16, temperatures in the Merritt area were hovering around 0 degrees, with lows dipping to -6 degrees on the 13th and 14th, according Environment Canada figures.

Schoenborn has not been charged in the deaths of his three children. He is currently being held on an arrest warrant for earlier charges and a bail hearing is scheduled for May 2.