A doctor says the injuries of a woman found dead after falling 10 storeys through a Regina hotel’s laundry chute suggest she probably went down feet first.
But Dr. Shaun Ladham told an inquest into the death of Nadine Machiskinic that there is a possibility she went backwards and head first.
Noah Evanchuk, lawyer for the woman’s family, says that implies someone put her in the laundry slide.
Machiskinic was found at the bottom of the chute at the Regina Delta Hotel in January 2015 and died in hospital.
READ MORE: Family has questions about Regina woman’s laundry chute death as inquest begins
Ladham initially ruled the death undetermined, but that was later changed to accidental.
The pathologist referenced two autopsy reports. In one, he deemed she was unlikely to able to get into the laundry chute herself, due to high levels of drugs in her system.
However, Ladham said that report was a “working document” and subject to change. It was also based on the information he had at the time.
After speaking with police, and with results from toxicology, the final report ruled there was not enough evidence to support she was incapable of climbing into the chute herself, Ladham added.
Evanchuk says he’s concerned about that.
“I do find it odd that there’s been this level of tinkering, tinkering with the report,” he said outside the inquest Tuesday.
“It certainly doesn’t assist the family in thinking the investigation was being forthright with them,” he added.
Ladham also recalled contusions to her head, bruising around her eyes, plus bleeding in many parts of her body.
Evanchuk said he hopes the inquest will recommend that all changes to autopsy reports be documented.
The report released last year on Machiskinic said she died of blunt force trauma to the head, neck and trunk consistent with a fall.
Tests also showed she had drugs in her system. The inquest heard that two prescription pill bottles were found near her body.
The coroner ruled her death accidental, saying there was no evidence of foul play and no evidence of suicidal intent.
The jury also heard from a Regina police detective Troy Davis of the Major Crimes Unit.
Davis testified that he was tasked with locating two men seen on Delta Hotel surveillance video, allegedly getting into an elevator with a woman believed to be Machiskinic.
He was put on the case more than a year after her death. Davis and the Major Crimes Unit were unsuccessful in locating the two “persons of interests.”
Davis also explained a portion of the Delta Hotel guest list was purged and requests for information from the public resulted in only two tips.
The two men have never been identified.
Machiskinic’s family has questioned how she fit through the chute door, which was 53 centimetres wide, and why it took 60 hours for police to start an investigation.
The inquest heard Monday that there was only one guest on the 10th floor on the night Machiskinic died and none of her DNA was found in that room.
With files from Christa Dao.
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