Phoebe Handsjuk, 24, was not an angel. She was a temperamental, artistic soul, suffering from mood swings. The amplitude of her moods oscillated between euphoria and depression. She has abused alcohol at times. Despite everything, the girl tried to control her life - she went to psychotherapy, and took medications. She wasn't a bad person, she needed help. Death turned out to be faster ...
The Balencea apartment building is like a mini paradise on earth. The magnificent twenty-three-story building stands proudly above St Kilda Road in Melbourne, Australia. It satisfies the needs of residents without the need to contact the outside world. On the property there is a gym, wine connoisseur club, swimming pool and spa. The service staff is available 24 hours a day.
On December 2, 2010, the concierge (building supervisor) was asked to clean an elevator in which someone had dirty. A woman named Beth took care of the problem right away. She took the vacuum cleaner from the glove compartment and headed for the elevator. On the spot, it turned out that the vacuum cleaner was broken. A traditional broom was needed, which was located in the room with the trash cans at the very bottom of the building.
Concierge went to the garbage can. She tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. They seemed blocked by something on the inside. Beth mustered all her strength and pushed it as hard as she could. She entered the room. Due to the movement inside, the lamps activated by the photocell lit up.
Beth looked around and saw what at first glance looked like a dummy. As the concierge looked closer, she realized it was a human body. It was lying in a pool of blood. A terrified Balencea employee ran out of the room. She was shocked. The police were called to the scene.
The body of Phoebe Handsjuck, twenty-four, lay on the floor of the dumpster. The girl could be there only in one way - through the chute, which was used by the tenants to dispose of rubbish. A grinding device is installed at the very bottom of the chute. Phoebe hit them as she fell. The blades nearly severed her right foot.
The woman survived the fall. Somehow she managed to get out of the garbage can. In total darkness, she tried to crawl to the door. She did not make it - she died of blood loss. It's hard to even imagine how terrible this death was - in pain, loneliness and terror.
Phoebe lived in the Balence building with her boyfriend Ant. The couple met in 2009, she was 23, he - 40. Apart from their age, there were many more: Phoebe worked as a receptionist at a hair salon, Ant (Antony Hampel) had a career in the event industry.
Phoebe and Ant's relationship was turbulent. This was largely due to the girl's alcohol problem and her mood disorder. Ant tried to be understanding for her. He called the girl's addiction "a monster." Phoebe couldn't decide whether she felt good or bad about the relationship. The couple parted and descended.
On the day of her tragic death, Phoebe was in Ant's apartment. He himself was at work most of the day. This can be easily proven by analyzing the data from the system that records the entrances and exits of the skyscraper's residents. Each of them had a special magnetic card.
When Antony Hampel returned home, Phoebe was gone. The apartment was a mess. There were cards everywhere, inscribed with the girl's golden thoughts. Candles were lit in the bedroom, pictures of the couple and more cards were on the bed.
Ant knew Phoebe was becoming unpredictable after drinking alcohol. He felt no need to look for her, he was sure Phoebe would eventually come back herself - as always. He learned about her death from a food supplier who knocked on his door. There was an ambulance and police cars standing around the Balencea building, so it was hard for the courier to get in.
Phoebe Handsjuk's death was a major surprise. Melbourne Police have never seen anything like this before. It was established that the girl had the idea of entering a small chute on the 12th floor and then sliding down into the black abyss.
Did Phoebe help? This could not be determined with certainty - for some reason the material from the surveillance cameras was not secured. The fingerprints on the entrance to the chute were too blurry to be used. Was Phoebe's bizarre behavior actually suicide?
The correctness of this hypothesis could be proved by a strange text message that the girl sent to her family and friends the day before. It read as follows: Hello family. I'm just lying in bed and I'm about to fall asleep. And when I wake up, I'll transform into the most amazing human being you've ever seen or not. I'll go to the hospital. It's safer there, and the specialty of the day is tomato soup… Delicious! Nutritious! I love you very much, but not so much to send each of you a separate text message. Sorry about that, but it's time to go to bed, I have to go. Cheerful. Life is just a dream. Kisses.
An autopsy revealed that Phoebe was under the influence of alcohol and the sleeping pills she had taken from her boyfriend. The doctor was not able to say how this combination affected the girl's body. However, he stated categorically that no third party was involved in her death.
Phoebe had marks on her body that are typical of a fall from the 12th story. There were no internal injuries characteristic of, for example, a beating. The immediate cause of death was bleeding out. The victim's right foot was severed by the blade of a garbage shredder. Her clothes, however, were not very dirty, which might be surprising given the circumstances, and the deceased's height did not agree. The documents stated that she was 166 cm, when in fact Phoebe was 175 cm.
At 10:35 am, on the day Phoebe died, Jeanette, the girl's grandmother, called Antony Hampel. She was concerned about the bizarre text message described above. She asked if Ant got it as well. The man stated that he hadn't seen him yet, but when he left the house in the morning (around 8:00) Phoebe slept soundly in bed.
Antony returned to Balencea at 6:05 pm. He realized Phoebe had left, but she hadn't taken her purse or the keys with her. It was strange because she never went anywhere without them. The mess, cards and candles also caused anxiety.
At 6:51 pm the phone rang in the apartment - Len, Phoebe's father, called. In later testimony, the man claimed to have dialed his daughter's iPhone number. Phoebe didn't answer. A moment later, Ant phoned Len. He said he was worried because the girl was nowhere to be found. He asked Lena if maybe she hadn't gone to him.
Len replied that he didn't know where Phoebe was, and his anxiety was at its peak. He suggested Ant to go to the police and report the missing girl. Ant replied that the police would not deal with the case until 48 hours had passed anyway. "By then Phoebe will probably be back," he said flatly. At 8:00 p.m., the food supplier called at the door of the apartment in Balencea ...
Antony wanted to know what had happened below that made police intervention necessary. He left the food and went down to the foyer, where he spoke to the detective standing there:
I live here. What happened?
We found the woman's body in a garbage can, ”the officer replied.
Oh no! My girlfriend is missing. Maybe it's her! Ant shouted.
During the interrogation, Antony stated that he would call Phoebe every few hours during the day to check if she was okay. He knew that the girl was depressed and was taking medication. After returning from work, he called several people to see if Phoebe was with them, but in fact he was convinced that the girl would eventually find herself alone. This has always been the case until now.
The police searched the apartment. Nothing particularly disturbing was found except a small amount of broken glass and blood on the floor. There was also some blood on the floor in the chute room and on the lid handle. Not enough to find fault with anything. Ant was devastated by the whole situation. He couldn't identify Phoebe's body.
On February 9, it was announced that Phoebe Handsjuk had voluntarily entered the chute without anyone's help. The reason for such bizarre behavior was to be mental disorders associated with intoxication with alcohol and sleeping pills. Phoebe's friends confirmed that the girl had a tendency in the past to take risks and prove to the world that she could do the impossible.
Phoebe's family and some of the people concerned did not want to come to terms with the outcome of the investigation. Questions about the reliability of the activities carried out began to be asked. The investigators' conduct and the results of Phoebe's autopsy were questioned.
One of the main doubts is related to the fact that the girl was not given medical help. At 7:20 p.m. on the unlucky day, an ambulance was called to the Balence building. However, the paramedics were not admitted to Phoebe lying in the trash. Police officers barred their way, claiming it was a crime scene. The ambulance crew was unable to determine that Phoebe was in fact dead, and if so, how long ago he died.
Monitoring recordings have not been secured. The policemen were not interested in this, despite the fact that the person from the staff of the skyscraper offered help in this regard. If the footage was collected from the cameras, it would be certain whether Phoebe had entered the chute alone, or if someone had accompanied her after all.
Journalists from the Australian TV show 60 Seconds conducted a rather ghastly experiment. They asked Phoebe's friend to squeeze through a specially prepared chute window, measuring 54.5 by 30 centimeters. Even a sober and physically fit person took a lot of time and effort.
Could a girl intoxicated with alcohol and sleeping pills really do it alone? The police say yes. The investigation has remained closed for years and there is no indication that it will ever be reopened. However, the questions remain ...
Bibliography:
- https://crimereads.com/an-australian-death-and-a-suspicious-ruling-of-suicide/
- https://www.marieclaire.com.au/what-happened-to-phoebe-handsjuk
- https://www.phoebehandsjuk.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment