Phoebe’s Fall: The Brief Life and Mysterious Demise of Phoebe Handsjuk
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In 2010, 24-year-old Phoebe Hanschuck was living with her boyfriend Anthony Hample at The Balencia, a luxury apartment complex in the business district of Melbourne, Australia. The Balencia, which had just been built in 2005, contained 23 floors of upscale apartment homes which overlooked the bustling and eye-catching central business district.

The building itself stood out among the rest of the area, with its exterior of sparkling, reflective black glass. Included in the average price point of half a million dollars were numerous amenities, including a 24-hour indoor pool, fitness center, weekly book and wine clubs, and an Italian restaurant located on the first floor.

The complex was also known to be exceptionally safe, with 24-hour security in addition to residents receiving floor-specific key fobs to gain entry to the building itself, as well as their individual apartments. But it was here, in this very apartment building, which seemed to be a pinnacle of luxurious living, where Phoebe would be found dead at the bottom of a trash chute. She had fallen feet first from the 12th floor trash room.

Phoebe's autopsy revealed that she had a blood alcohol level of 0.16% and her blood contained high levels of prescription drugs. Was Phoebe's death a tragic accident during which she, while under the influence of a combination of medication and alcohol, put herself into the trash chute, the only recorded instance of this cause of death in Australia's history?

Or was Phoebe's death a murder for which no one has ever been caught? Part 1: Phoebe's Backstory Len Hansjuck was a psychologist in Melbourne, Australia, who owned a private practice. He employed a receptionist named Jeanette Campbell and introduced Len to her daughter Natalie. Len and Natalie hit it off and eventually married, soon moving to Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne.

In the early morning hours of May 9th, 1986, Len and Natalie gave birth to their first child via emergency C-section, a baby girl they named Phoebe. They would later welcome Phoebe's brother, Tom, in 1988, followed by another son, Nikolai, four years later.

As a child, Phoebe attended Sophia Mundy Steiner School, which was described as the perfect environment for her to thrive. Phoebe was described as a creative and free-spirited child, and it seemed that there was nothing she didn't excel at. She enjoyed drawing, painting, and writing, but was also athletic, enjoying running and playing basketball.

Phoebe was always up for a challenge, and she enjoyed taking risks and using her athleticism and fitness to her advantage. She was also known to be incredibly social and had an ability to make plenty of friends fast. Her family has described her as extremely sensitive, caring, and compassionate, always feeling her emotions very deeply. They say she was strong-willed and often quick-tempered.

but always had a cheeky, playful sense of humor and a fierce desire for justice. However, around the age of 13, Phoebe began experiencing some mental health challenges, including depression and anxiety.

She started spending time with a group of friends who were beginning to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Though she was taking medication and receiving counseling to help her overcome her mental health concerns, she still relied heavily on drugs and alcohol to self-medicate. By the time Phoebe turned 15, her parents began experiencing strain in their marriage and eventually separated, which led Phoebe to run away from home.

She began living in an apartment with five other girls and a newborn baby, where they frequently used drugs. Eight weeks later, Phoebe returned home when the father of the newborn baby turned up at the apartment and threatened the baby's mother with a knife.

When Phoebe was 16, she began experiencing mood swings, so her father referred her to a psychologist who recommend she begin taking antidepressants. Her parents weren't huge fans of this, however, since Phoebe had a habit of starting and stopping the medication whenever she chose. Around this time, after Phoebe had turned 17 years old, she began dating a 30-year-old teacher.

Despite their age difference, Phoebe's family believed that the couple's relationship was loving and stable, and her boyfriend would later move into their home to live with Phoebe and her mother during the two-year relationship. As Phoebe got older, her family noticed that her drinking had strayed from being a social activity to becoming a more routine event.

Her family noted that, despite her heavy drinking, Phoebe was a lightweight and would become uncoordinated after just a couple of drinks. In fact, Natalie recalls one instance when she returned home from work to find blood on the family's trampoline and in the bathroom sink.

When she asked Phoebe how it got there, she reported that she had cut herself while working on a piece of art. But Natalie suspected that she had been drinking and injured herself.

Another time, Phoebe was having coffee with her grandmother, Jeanette, when Jeanette noticed a bandage on Phoebe's arm. When Jeanette inquired about the bandage, Phoebe said that she had deliberately cut herself, saying, "I didn't mean to do anything bad. I just wanted to hurt myself." After this, Jeanette made Phoebe ensure that she was not having suicidal thoughts, and Phoebe promised that if she ever did, she would reach out to Jeanette. Part 2

Phoebe meets Anthony Hample. In 2009, now 23-year-old Phoebe met 40-year-old Anthony Hample, who went by the nickname Ant. Ant was a client of celebrity hairstylist Lynley Godfrey at Salon 579, where Phoebe worked as a receptionist. The two began dating and, though Phoebe's family found Ant to be a nice guy, they reported feeling that their relationship wouldn't last very long.

and was a wealthy, established businessman who lived a flashy lifestyle. He was the owner of A Live Events, a global event company serving many big-name clients, including Fortune 500 companies, A-list celebrities, and politicians.

Due to the nature of his work, Ant had many connections in the entertainment world. But he was also very well connected politically through his father, George Hample, who was a Supreme Court judge in Victoria from 1983 until the year 2000.

George's wife, Ant's stepmother, was a practicing human rights lawyer who also acted as a county court judge in Victoria since 2005. Only five months into their relationship, Ant had invited Phoebe to move in with him to his 12th floor apartment at the Balencia. He encouraged Phoebe to quit her job as a receptionist and landed her a job at a marketing firm called Savvy, where she worked three days a week.

By all accounts, Ant was very controlling of Phoebe, always ensuring that her behavior reflected the lifestyle he wanted to portray to the world. When Phoebe began dating Ant, she drifted away from her childhood friends. She also changed her appearance, cutting her once long brown hair into a more sophisticated dark black pixie cut.

Ant was also known to be extremely particular about his home's appearance, claiming that he wanted it to look like nobody lived there. One day, when Phoebe was still working at the hair salon, she left work early because she was so anxious. That morning, she had left a stain on Ant's pristine white carpet, and she spent the whole day panicking, trying to make sure she got home before he did, so that she could clean the carpet.

Another afternoon, Jeanette had come over to the apartment to have coffee with Phoebe. During their conversation, Jeanette noted that Phoebe seemed distracted, glancing over at a cup that had been left out on the counter. Phoebe even got up mid-conversation to put the cup away for fear of leaving aunt's home below his standards of cleanliness.

At this time, Phoebe was seeing a psychologist named Johanna Young. She confided in Johanna that Ant would often put her down and make her feel stupid. Many people close to Phoebe reported that she wanted to separate from him, but was scared to, and she feared that he would propose to her on an upcoming trip to Paris that they had planned.

On October 20th, 2009, Phoebe left Ant's apartment, sure that she would never return. That night, she stayed at Natalie's house, even though Natalie was out of town for eight weeks. At this time, Phoebe told her grandmother, Jeanette, that she'd planned to leave Ant and lead a calm lifestyle while she worked and saved up enough money to move to India and do volunteer work.

Phoebe began working for a golf course to earn money, and she started attending AA meetings in an attempt to stop drinking alcohol entirely. According to Linda Cohen, a friend Phoebe had met in AA, the morning of November 20th, Phoebe woke up clear-headed and spent her time drawing and writing poetry. Despite her previous plans to leave Ant, she called him up in hopes that they could talk things through.

Soon after, Phoebe moved back to the Valencia, though it seemed that the truce the couple had reached was short-lived. Just three days later, Phoebe called her father, informing him that aunt had kicked her out of the apartment. After Phoebe had spent a few nights with her father and brother, aunt had once again invited her out to dinner on November 25th, convincing her to return to him.

Despite his efforts, Phoebe informed Aunt that she would be returning to her father's house the next day. However, during the following week, it appeared that Phoebe was still living with Aunt in an on-again, off-again manner, spending time with him some days but leaving to stay with her family and friends on other days, all while reaching out to various local mental health services.

Though Phoebe never outright told her psychologist, Johanna, that she was planning on taking her own life, Johanna did say that she got the impression that Phoebe was thinking this, and she later regretted not calling a crisis team for support. In spite of Johanna's claims about Phoebe, other friends of hers claimed that Phoebe was lucid and positive about the future when they spoke to her during the week before her death.

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Part 3: The Fall The morning of Wednesday, December 1st, 2010, Ant claimed that Phoebe was still asleep when he got up for work, since she had spent the previous night drinking and using drugs.

When he left the apartment that morning around 9 a.m., he took two things with him, one of Phoebe's two cell phones, an iPhone 3, which he was bringing to be repaired, and a bottle of Stilnox pills, a sleeping medication that he had been prescribed. That morning, Phoebe's family, friends, and even her boss were in constant communication over a strange text message they had all received from her iPhone 3 at around 10.30 a.m.,

The text read: "Hi family, I'm in bed about to sleep, and when I wake, I will transform into the most incredible human being you've ever seen. Not. I will go to the hospital. It's safe there. And I hear the special tonight is tomato soup. Delicious. Nutritious. I love you all very much, but not enough to send an individual text. Sorry about that. But time asleep, and I must be on my way.

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. XO." Ant informed Phoebe's worried loved ones that she was fine and sleeping peacefully when he left the apartment that morning. But he assured them that he would go back to the apartment later that day to check on her. At this point, Phoebe's family and friends were unaware that Ant would later report being in possession of Phoebe's iPhone at the time the text was sent.

Ant reported returning to the apartment midday to check on Phoebe, who was still asleep where he had last seen her. According to Ant, Phoebe told him that she had taken two of his sleeping pills. This is where Ant's story begins to crack even more.

Ant said that when he left the apartment after his visit, he brought the Stilnox bottle with him to prevent Phoebe from taking any more pills, which contradicts his first statement about him taking the bottle with him that morning. Additionally, there is no record that Ant even returned to the apartment at all that afternoon.

Since every door at the Balencia requires a keycard swipe for entry, there is a log kept of everyone who comes and goes throughout the building. The only records of Ant swiping his keycard that day, Wednesday, December 1st, were when he left for work at 9:00 a.m. and when he returned in the evening at exactly 7:33 p.m. Shelley, the woman who cleaned Ant's apartment, gives us some more insight as to what may have happened that day.

Shelly claimed that Phoebe and Ant's relationship always made her feel uneasy. She claimed that Ant seemed very controlling of Phoebe, and that their relationship seemed to be more of a parent-child one than a romantic one. The afternoon of December 1st, Shelly entered the apartment around 2:17 pm. She was confused to find Phoebe home, asleep in bed.

The bedroom was dark with the curtains closed, so Shelly began to quietly clean the other side of the apartment first. Once she made her way to the side of the apartment where Phoebe was sleeping, Shelly knocked on the bedroom door. Phoebe woke up and got out of bed wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Shelly suspected that Phoebe may be sick, so she offered to help her and bring her anything she may need.

In response, Shelley reported that Phoebe flashed a dazzling smile and politely declined her offer. Phoebe got back in bed as soon as Shelley finished cleaning the bedroom, and Shelley left the apartment at around 5 p.m. The following version of events is from Ant's point of view after he returned home from work the night before Phoebe's death at around 7 p.m. That night, Ant and Phoebe had a night in.

He brought home their plane tickets to Paris to show Phoebe, ran a bath for her, gave her a massage, and cooked dinner. Around 8pm, Phoebe made an 11-minute phone call to her father Len to wish him a happy birthday. The following day, the day of Phoebe's death, two fire alarms had been set off at the Balencia, both of them false alarms.

The first was set off at around 11:30 a.m. by a construction crew who was working in the penthouse, and all 23 floors were evacuated from the building. Security cameras do show Phoebe and her dog Yoshi evacuating the building around 11:50 a.m. At 12:01 p.m. and 2:19 p.m., there was activity on the computer that Phoebe and Ant shared.

Though it can't be confirmed whether someone was physically at the computer at these times or it was automated activity, there was an email sent from Phoebe's email address around 12:01 pm.

At around 4 pm, the manager of the Balencia, Eric Giammaria, stopped by the building to check in on his employees. He planned to stop by the trash compactor, which had recently been serviced, to make sure things were running smoothly, but he was unable to do so since he had to leave early to bring his son to a music lesson. Since he couldn't make it, he asked the concierge, Beth Ozolub, to stop by before her shift was over.

Then, at 6:05 pm, the second fire alarm went off. Beth, the concierge, and a painter who was working in the penthouse were in the fire control room when the fire department arrived, and they helped them turn off the alarm. The building was not evacuated this time, but Beth still made a note of the event since they would have to pay the fire department for showing up to a false alarm.

By 6:35 pm, things had settled down at the Balencia, and Beth planned to relax and have a cup of tea after a hectic evening at work. Before she was able to do this, however, a resident approached the front desk and informed Beth that the elevator was a mess.

After recording this in the logbook, Beth grabbed the vacuum cleaner from a storage closet and planned to vacuum up the crumbs that were reportedly in the elevator. However, when she tried to turn on the vacuum, it wasn't working. She knew that her broom and a dustpan were kept in the trash room, but she usually tried to avoid going in there since it was often messy and never smelled pleasant. Despite this, she knew that there was no other way for her to clean up the elevator.

so she went to the trash room anyway. When Beth unlocked and attempted to open the door to the trash room, it only opened partially, and it seemed that there was something on the other side of the door that was preventing it from opening completely. Beth used her shoulder to force the door open, and she was able to gain entry. She noticed that a full trash bin had been tipped over and blocked the door, spilling out all of its contents in the process.

This apparently happened often, but when Beth saw this, she knew that she had yet another mess to clean up. When Beth began cleaning up the spilled contents of the overturned trash can, she realized what had been blocking the door from opening. At first, she thought it was a mannequin. She was not surprised. She had seen even stranger things tossed down the trash by the residents of the Valencia.

However, once her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting in the trash room and her mind processed what was in front of her, she realized that she was not looking at a mannequin. Blocking the door was the body of a dark-haired woman lying on her back, bloody and mutilated. Beth stepped out of the trash room for a moment, took a few deep breaths to collect herself, and re-entered to investigate further.

She noticed that there were several trails of congealed blood leading to the badly injured body. Beth noticed bruises and abrasions covering the woman, whose right foot had been nearly severed completely. Unbeknownst to Beth, the mangled body laying in front of her was Phoebe Hanschuck, who had just fallen feet first from the 12th floor. Once she had fallen to the bottom, the trash compactor had sensed that something was there and began working.

which is what nearly severed her foot, based on the trails of blood seen surrounding her body. It is also believed that Phoebe was still alive after this and crawled around the trash room searching for an exit before dying from blood loss. Beth frantically and hysterically called her boss, Eric, who claimed that she was completely incoherent. He was only able to make out a few words between her gasps and tears. Dead and rubbish room.

He urged her to immediately hang up and call the police, who arrived moments later. Beth found Phoebe's body just before 7pm. By this time, Ant was already home from work, since he had swiped his keycard in the apartment's parking garage at 6:09pm. Ant told police that, on this night, he'd returned home to find that Phoebe's dog, Yoshi, had torn up one of the expensive couch cushions in the apartment.

On the kitchen counter, Ant found Phoebe's keys and purse, which he thought was strange considering she never went anywhere without her purse. He also found post-it notes with illegible writing on them sitting on the kitchen counter, as well as what he called a shrine on their bed. This shrine consisted of a photo of the couple, a photo of Phoebe's cat, more incoherent post-it notes, and several lit candles.

Ant claimed that he had called Phoebe multiple times throughout the day, but was unable to get a hold of her on either her Nokia, which was her second cell phone, or their house phone. Ant suspected that Phoebe was drinking that evening, since he allegedly found two glasses of clear liquid sitting on the kitchen counter in the apartment, in addition to some broken glass. He assumed these glasses contained water, but discovered that it was vodka when he smelled it.

Ant reported finding the computer open, with Phoebe's Gmail pulled up, and noticed spots of blood on the computer desk and mouse. The other version of events from this night is told from the perspective of Len, Phoebe's father. He called Phoebe's iPhone at 6:51 p.m. to let Phoebe know that he would be running late for the birthday dinner plans that he had with her and Ant. According to Ant's original story, Phoebe's iPhone should not have even been with them that night.

since it was reportedly being repaired. However, just moments after Len attempted to call Phoebe, Ant called Len, informing him that Phoebe was not at the apartment. Len found it strange that Ant had called him at all, considering Ant had never called Len for anything in the past. But Len found it especially strange that he received the call less than a minute after attempting to call Phoebe, though Ant described this as a coincidence.

Len encouraged Ant to call the police and report Phoebe as missing. But Ant said that probably wasn't a good idea since the police wouldn't do anything unless she had been gone for 48 hours. Len called around to Phoebe's close family and friends to see if anyone had heard from her. No one had. But Phoebe had disappeared before. So Len thought nothing of it and continued to get dressed for their dinner plans.

Meanwhile, Ant ordered a takeout meal for one person, which was delivered just after 8pm. When the delivery boy arrived at the apartment, he apologized for the delay and hoped the food wouldn't be cold, informing Ant that there were multiple police cars at the entrance of the Balencia, blocking the street.

Ant headed downstairs to see what the commotion was, and Sergeant Andrew Healy informed him that the body of a woman had been found in the trash room. Ant claimed that at this moment his heart sank, and he knew that it had to be Phoebe. Part 4: The Investigation The police went up to Ant's apartment with him to ask him some questions.

Ant described Phoebe's tattoos to the police, who confirmed that the body found in the trash room was indeed Phoebe. At this point, Ant began making comments to the police that Phoebe had been suffering with mental health challenges, insinuating that he expected this to be a suicide. He then began making calls to his and Phoebe's families, informing them of her death.

When police began searching the apartment, they noticed some of the things that Ant had reported, such as the post-it notes and blood drops, but they did not see the shrine that Ant had mentioned. They collected some photos and Phoebe's journal from the bed, but they said it was not nearly the shrine that Ant had described. Police did not, however, collect or test any of the blood that was found in the apartment.

nor did they test any of the broken glass to determine where it had come from. The police began investigating the rest of the 12th floor, finding another spot of blood on the door handle of the 12th floor trash room, in addition to more spots of blood on the floor of that room. A detective also noticed dirty shoe prints leading away from Ant's apartment. They suspected that the person who left these prints was either very tall or was running away based on the large stride size.

They concluded that these footprints had been left that day, since the floors of the Balencia got mopped every day. However, the prints were never photographed or investigated further. The manager of the Balencia, Eric, informed police that if they wanted to collect any security footage, they should do it soon, since the cameras recorded over footage every two days or so.

Despite this, police never took any of the camera footage from that day, so it was recorded over and lost forever. Additionally, police did not check for signs of life in Phoebe when they arrived at the scene. A paramedic who was also at the scene attempted to do so, but the police blocked her way, so she was unable to get to Phoebe's body.

Though the paramedic noted that Phoebe had a bluish color to her and appeared to be deceased, no medical professionals were allowed near her body before she was removed from the trash room. The paramedic observed that Phoebe was lying on her back. She had lacerations to her right thigh and hip, and her right foot was lying in an unnatural position. She was barefoot and wearing a gray T-shirt and jeans. However, her jeans were pulled down below her knees.

When her body was removed to be taken for autopsy, her sunglasses were found broken underneath her, indicating that they were somewhere on her body when she entered the trash chute. Phoebe's computer was not taken into evidence until three months after her death, and its contents were not analyzed for another two years after this. After Phoebe's death, her brother logged into her Gmail account to see if he could find any leads as to what may have happened.

but he found that all of her emails had been deleted. From the night that Phoebe was found, Ant seemed to be sure that her death was a suicide, even before the police had made a determination of her manner of death. On December 7th, Ant posted on Facebook: "For those of you around the world who don't know the sad news, my partner Phoebe struggled with terrible depression much of her life.

She took her own life on Thursday to ease her pain, to be at peace. There will be a memorial next week. On December 8th, the police met with Phoebe's parents and informed them that there was no evidence to suggest foul play, and that Phoebe's death was self-inflicted, whether on purpose or accidentally. But her family was not able to accept this answer. In spite of her depression, Phoebe had been making plans for the future.

She was excited to travel to India and even to decorate for her brother's birthday party the very next day. The autopsy indicated that Phoebe had a few substances in her system when she died. Her blood alcohol level was 0.16% and she had ingested a normal amount of Stilnox, as well as Cymbalta and Quinine before her death.

Phoebe was prescribed Cymbalta to manage her depression, but it is unknown where she would have obtained the quinine, which is often used to treat malaria as well as muscle cramps. Phoebe also had several broken bones, but there was no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.

the coroner viewed the trash chute and determined that a woman of Phoebe's stature would have been able to enter the chute herself. He also commented that if Phoebe was conscious and someone was forcing her into the chute, he would have expected to see defensive wounds to her upper body, though none were observed.

Considering the combination of medication and alcohol found in her system, he did not rule out the possibility that she could have been incapacitated and unable to fight back if someone was attempting to put her down the chute. Part 5: The Aftermath When Phoebe's family went to the morgue to identify her body, they were shocked to find out that they were not labeled as her next of kin.

They were informed that Ant had registered himself as Phoebe's next of kin due to their domestic partnership, despite the fact that Phoebe and Ant had not been dating for very long at all, especially when their periods of frequent separation were taken into account. In the weeks after Phoebe's death, her family felt that Ant's behavior was odd. It seemed that he was inconsolable and overtaken with grief when Phoebe's family was present.

but less so when he was around his own friends and family. They also found it disrespectful that Ant wanted to take the reins when planning Phoebe's funeral, using his experience in event planning as an excuse to make it an extravagant event, despite Phoebe's family's request to have it be an intimate memorial. Ant suggested that they hold two separate memorials, one hosted by Ant and one hosted by Phoebe's family.

Ant's memorial was held on December 12th at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Club, and not everyone in Phoebe's family was in attendance. The day before, Natalie sent Ant an email apologizing for being guarded, but explaining that she had a hard time believing that this was a suicide.

She explained that she felt frustrated that she was unable to get alone time to properly discuss things with Ant, and that she was kept in the dark when it came to getting information from both him and the investigators. Since he had given himself power of attorney, Natalie felt that Ant had the responsibility to be more transparent with the family.

Natalie also expressed sadness that Ant's family was so combative when the handsjucks requested the autopsy be performed by a coroner who had no conflict of interest, since some of Ant's family members had worked in local and state governments. Natalie also told Ant that she did not appreciate him making the Facebook post that labeled Phoebe's death a suicide before the police even informed the family and while her death was still being investigated.

Ant's memorial for Phoebe was described as well put together and quite extravagant. But those in attendance who knew Phoebe said that, despite the money put into the event, it did not reflect Phoebe's personality at all. One of Phoebe's friends noticed that Ant had not included any pictures of Phoebe before she knew him, commenting that the event felt like the send-off of a stranger.

The memorial held by Phoebe's family took place on December 16th at the Old Abbotsford Convent. Many of the hundreds of people in attendance described it as a low-key event that was very much Phoebe's style. The following day, December 17th, Phoebe was cremated, as she had wanted. Natalie then met up with Aunt and his mother to discuss things.

Natalie described Ant as being back to normal, the kind man she had known during his relationship with Phoebe. Ant told Natalie that Phoebe seemed unhappy during her last days, spending a lot of time asleep and recovering from drinking binges. He also gave Natalie a box of some things that Phoebe had left at the apartment.

Natalie noticed that this box did not contain some of the most important things Phoebe would have been in possession of, such as her passport, wallet, or birth certificate. It did not include her laptop, new camera, or jewelry either. But, most significantly to Natalie, the box also did not include Phoebe's journals, which Natalie believed may have contained some of the most important insights into Phoebe's mindset in the days leading up to her death.

In an attempt to collect benefits from Phoebe's death, Ant had recently emailed a friend of Phoebe's asking her to write a statement that described Ant and Phoebe's relationship at the time of her death as healthy and loving. Her friend declined, however, stating that she had never heard Phoebe describe their relationship in that way.

Instead, Ant's father wrote a statement in which he reported the couple had been living together for six months longer than they actually had. Ant ended up receiving over $100,000 in benefits, which he later gave to Phoebe's brothers after receiving some frustrated pushback from Phoebe's family.

In the weeks after Phoebe's death, some of her family members sat down with the investigator who was assigned Phoebe's case, Brendan Payne, and requested that more be done to find out what may have happened to Phoebe. Brendan agreed to look into the case more and scheduled an interview with Ant for January 24th. When Ant arrived, he had brought his father, who was a lawyer, and requested to be present for the interview.

During this interview, Ant made some contradicting statements about his timelines, but ultimately no new information was gained. On January 28, Phoebe's grandfather Lorne, a retired police officer, brought two of Phoebe's friends to the Valencia where they planned to conduct an experiment to see whether a woman of Phoebe's approximate size and strength could have gotten herself into the trash chute.

The opening of the trash chute was described as about the size of a laptop and was about three feet off the ground. Detective Brendan Payne was present for the experiment and observed that, though it was possible for the women to get into the chute, it required much contortion of the body and certainly could not have been done easily or comfortably.

The door to the chute was spring-loaded so that it would shut quickly whenever it was not being held open. In the experiment, it was only possible for the woman to enter the chute when another person held the door open for her. Otherwise, it would keep slamming shut. Lauren then conducted another experiment to determine if, once Phoebe got in the door, she could then make it past the inclined portion that led to the vertical 12-story drop.

Lorne got together with Neil Bone, the owner of the company that produced the trash chute. Neil was eager to contribute to these experiments since this was the first he had ever heard of someone going down a trash chute, and he suspected that it would be very difficult to do. Neil created a replica chute that would be used during the second experiment, which was conducted on February 18th with the same women who had participated in the first one.

The first woman to attempt this was able to get in the door, but could not follow through the rest of the chute because her shoulders were too wide. The second woman, after much difficulty, was only able to follow through when she had one arm extended above her head, since she had to use it to keep the spring-loaded door open. Neal felt that the only way Phoebe could pass through was if she also kept at least one arm above her head.

but this would have resulted in injuries to her upper body, which were not recorded during the autopsy. The group also conducted an experiment to see if someone could have placed an incapacitated Phoebe into the chute. A man of a similar build to Ant was brought in to attempt to put Phoebe's friend in the model chute. It was quickly determined that he could very easily place the woman in the chute.

On March 10th, Brendan Payne filed for a warrant to get possession of the shared MacBook that was at the apartment at the time Phoebe died. Upon inspection of the laptop, it was discovered that in October of 2010, two months before Phoebe died, someone had downloaded a coroner's office form 25 from the coroner's website, which was the form for the release of a body.

When Ant was asked about this, he told investigators that he had no memory of downloading that form and that he would have no reason to at the time. When police got a hold of Phoebe's iPhone, they noticed some things appeared to have been deleted from here as well, including the suspicious text that Phoebe had allegedly sent to her family and friends. Around this same time, Ant's sister Chrissy began acting strangely.

Chrissy and Phoebe were known to be friends, but aunt forbade them from communicating or spending time together. In the weeks after Phoebe's death, Chrissy made a Facebook post which included a photo of her and Phoebe and said, "You and your family were let down by the justice system and those who represent it. I only hope that one day the truth will come out so that they may have some peace."

Chrissy soon deleted this post and declined any interviews to discuss what she meant by this. Part 6: The Inquest In August of 2013, an inquest into Phoebe's death began. The inquest was set to make a decision out of three possibilities: Phoebe's death was either a suicide, accident, or murder. During the inquest, it was revealed that Phoebe had been taking Lexapro to help manage her anxiety.

but Ant stated that he was not aware of this. He was also unaware that her dosage had been raised from 30 milligrams to 60 milligrams that September. He was, however, aware that Phoebe had previously occasionally taken some of his Stilnox pills to help her fall and stay asleep.

Phoebe had been seeing two mental health professionals: Johanna Young, her psychologist, who she had seen over 26 times between February and November of 2010, and Dr. Peter Cherven, her psychiatrist, who she had seen from 2008 to 2009.

Dr. Cherven described Phoebe as intelligent and likable, but suspected that she may have some concerns such as adjustment disorder with moderate to severe depression, as well as a moderate substance use issue. He also believed that Phoebe showed signs of being in the early stages of borderline personality disorder.

For treatment, Phoebe was prescribed 10 mg daily of Lexapro, but this dosage was later increased to 28 mg, and she also occasionally took Valium during periods of withdrawal. She was also recommended to attend AA meetings as part of her treatment, which were sometimes successful, though she would always return to her pattern of binge drinking.

Dr. Cherven reported that Phoebe had occasionally mentioned feeling suicidal, but she never had a plan of action and he was not worried that she would ever follow through with this. Johanna Young had diagnosed Phoebe with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder and also noted that she displayed elements of borderline personality disorder.

During the inquest, some information was brought up regarding Stilnox and the strange experiences that some people have reported when taking this medication. In 5% of users, Stilnox was found to produce a side effect of sleepwalking, even in people who had no prior history of doing so.

Individuals experiencing this side effect reported bizarre behavior while asleep, including running, driving, punching, and even brandishing knives. One doctor reported that the Adverse Medicine Events Hotline had received 915 calls regarding still knocks between February and June of 2007. 85% of these calls were regarding instances of sleepwalking.

However, despite all of this, there is no evidence that any of these people have done anything while asleep that they would not normally do in their awake state. The Still Knox packaging advised users not to ingest the pill in conjunction with alcohol and warned them to discontinue use after four weeks. After all of the testimony and evidence presented during the inquest, the coroner had made a conclusion.

The coroner suspected that this was the sequence of events that occurred on the day of Phoebe's death. On the morning of December 2nd, Phoebe and her dog, Yoshi had gotten up at 11:43 AM to evacuate the complex after the fire alarm went off. Based on the surveillance footage, Phoebe did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at this time. Not long after returning to the apartment, Phoebe began consuming alcohol and Stilnox.

Throughout the day, Phoebe listened to music, lit a few candles, and went on the computer a couple of times.

He suspected that, at some point, Phoebe had broken a glass while drinking and cut herself while attempting to clean up, leaving a few drops of blood scattered around the apartment. She then placed the broken glass in a garbage bag and headed to the trash room to dispose of it. In a confused and disinhibited, almost sleepwalking state due to the combination of medication and alcohol that she had consumed, Phoebe then got into the chute.

There was a garbage bag found near Phoebe's body that resembled the type of bags Ant used at his apartment. However, no one was able to find a bag that specifically contained broken glass or any items from Ant's apartment, as was suggested by the coroner's timeline of events. The conclusion had been made. Phoebe's death was ruled to be self-imposed. This decision would make it very difficult for Phoebe's family to pursue the case any further.

The coroner's assistant had submitted a 68-page report stating that the only appropriate decision for this inquest would be an open one, since there was insufficient evidence to prove that Phoebe's death was an intentional suicide, accident, or murder. The coroner, however, completely disregarded his assistant's opinion, an action that is extraordinarily rare to see.

With this decision, the handsjugs were left feeling hopeless for the future of Phoebe's case. Unless some new evidence is found or someone comes forward with information, nothing more can be done to investigate whether Phoebe's death was maybe not as much of an unfortunate accident as it was presented to be.

To this day, Phoebe's family does not believe that she did this to herself, and they work tirelessly to keep Phoebe's name and story alive in hopes of one day receiving true justice for their beloved Phoebe.

These ads do not represent my own political viewpoint. So if you hear a political ad play on the podcast and it's not in my own voice, then it has absolutely nothing to do with me personally as a podcaster. Thank you again for being a dedicated listener of mine, and I can't wait to have another amazing year with you guys. I'll see you in the next episode.