A former inmate at Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women has spoken out for the first time about Ashley Smith’s final hours.  

Michelle-Lynn Erstikaitis was in the segregation wing, in the cell next to the troubled teen, on the day Smith died more than five years ago.  

She tells the Toronto Sun, Smith knocked on the wall between their cells and told her she had stolen and stashed away one of the guard’s sweaters.  

Erstikaitis believes it was a piece from that sweater that the 19-year-old tied around her neck, ultimately resulting in her death several hours later.

She also viewed the videos of Smith’s time behind bars and was furious by what she saw.  

She tells the Sun, “They tortured her. No wonder she killed herself. She was just a kid. She was a child. She had troubles, so what? Everybody in prison is troubled. She probably should have been in a psychiatric facility. These people failed her.”