The mysterious death of a young woman who fell 40 metres down a garbage chute was found to be a ‘freak accident’ with a coronial inquest ruling she had placed herself in the compactor.
But experts have blown the lid on the ‘unsatisfactory’ police investigation with an experiment proving it would have been ‘virtually impossible’ to climb into the chute on her own.
Phoebe Handsjuk was found dead next to a wheelie bin after tumbling 12 storeys in a luxury high-rise apartment in Melbourne where she lived with her older boyfriend Antony Hampel.
The 24-year-old woman plummeted feet first down the garbage compactor and bled to death in the dark after desperately crawling out of a bin for help after her right foot was almost severed off.
Victoria Police determined she had committed suicide on December 2, 2010 while a coroner ruled her death was a ‘freak accident’ – but her family rejected the findings.
She had spent her final hours drinking until she was three times over the legal limit, having left her apartment earlier in the day with her dog when a fire alarm went off.
Over a decade after her baffling death, mystery surrounds how Ms Handsjuk (pictured) ended up in the garbage chute
And 11 years on, her death remains a mystery as questions swirl around how she managed to get herself into the garbage chute hours later, leading to her horrific death.
Channel Nine’s Under Investigation conducted an experiment with a model of the same age and build to see if she could lift herself into an exact replica of the chute.
After multiple failed attempts she was eventually able to climb inside the 22cm latch but only with her arms directly above her head.
Detectives who examined the scene concluded her arms must have been by her side during the fall given the nature of her wounds.
But in such a small space it would have been impossible to bring her arms from above her head to her side, bringing their theory into doubt.
Such an experiment was never carried out by police, with an inquest saying Ms Handsjuk inexplicably climbed into the chute in a ‘sleep-walk state’ after taking a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills.
The 24-year-old (pictured) plummeted to her death feet first down the garbage compactor and bled to death in the dark after her right foot was almost severed off
Channel Nine’s Under Investigation conducted an experiment with a model of the same age and build to see if she could lift herself into an exact replica of the chute – with the woman only managing to do so with her arms above her head and with great effort
Phoebe Handsjuk (left) was found dead on the ground floor after tumbling 12 storeys in a luxury high-rise apartment in Melbourne where she lived with her older boyfriend Antony Hampel (right)
However given the difficulty of a sober person attempting to lift themselves into the chute it appears extremely unlikely Ms Handsjuk in her intoxicated state would have had the coordination to do so.
‘One of the major problems apart from the dimensions is that the door comes up against your lower back and jams you in, so trying to manoeuvre yourself is then not helped by the fact there is nothing to grip onto,’ retired Victoria Police Detective Rowland Legg told the program.
‘And on top of that whatever Phoebe had in her system at the time would have made it even more difficult.’
She was captured on CCTV with her dog leaving the apartment building at 11.44am on the day of her death when a film alarm went off, returning shortly later.
In the hours which followed, she drank heavily and at some point left her apartment again before plunging down the tight garbage chute on the 12th floor before 7pm.
Her partner came home to find their apartment in disarray, and with her handbag, apartment keys and security swipe card still on the kitchen counter.
Victoria Police believed Ms Handsjuk (pictured) inexplicably climbed into the chute in a ‘sleep-walk state’ after taking a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills
Former Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy QC said he was ‘surprised’ police never conducted their own experiment into how someone would get themselves down the chute.
But it wasn’t the only ‘glaring oversight’ investigators failed to take into account.
They neglected to secure all the CCTV footage from the apartment block on the night of her death and did not seize any computers and electronic devices from her apartment.
When her family were eventually able to access her laptop they discovered all her outgoing emails had been deleted.
‘She had two phones. An iPhone and a Nokia phone and extraordinarily the Nokia phone has never been located,’ Mr Legg said.
‘There were a lot of strange contradictions that should have been pursued by weren’t.’
Ms Handsjuk fell 40-metres down the garbage chute of a luxury Melbourne high-rise (pictured) in what the coroner called a a ‘freak accident’
Police neglected to secure all the CCTV footage from the apartment block on the night of her death (Ms Handsjuk pictured the day she died)
Photos from her apartment that night showed two glasses on the kitchen bench that were never dusted for fingerprints.
Her blood was also found inside the apartment along with broken glass.
The coroner surmised Ms Handsjuk had broken a glass, cut herself and then gone to the garbage chute to dispose of broken glass, however no shards matching what was found in her unit were ever discovered amongst the rubbish near her body.
And the theory does not explain why there was no blood or fingerprints found on the handle of the garbage chute.
‘It shows the danger in making assumptions when you haven’t done the investigatory work,’ Mr Whealy said.
Her mother Natalie (pictured with daughter Phoebe) said she was devastated the coroner did not rule for an ‘open finding’ instead calling it a death by misadventure
The coroner surmised Ms Handsjuk had broken a glass, cut herself and then gone to the garbage chute to dispose of broken glass however no shards matching what was found in her unit were ever discovered amongst the rubbish near her body
Other inconsistencies include bruising on her arms suggesting she may have been grabbed prior to her fall.
Her mother Natalie said she was devastated the coroner did not rule for an ‘open finding’ instead calling in a death by misadventure.
‘I don’t believe Phoebe put herself into the rubbish chute,’ she said.
‘I don’t believe it was an accidental death. I feel that somebody put her in there.’
Mr Whealy agreed that the conclusion of the coroner was far beyond the weight of evidence.
‘I think in the context where a beautiful, vibrant, albeit troubled, young girl has her life ended at the age of 24, that is not satisfactory and I query whether the interest of justice has been properly served.
‘The investigation was hampered from the start,’ Professor Belinda Carpenter, an expert in coronial investigations, added.
‘In this case the family were not given closure despite the coroner’s best intentions.’
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