Forensic toxicologist Christopher Keddy continued his testimony Wednesday, explaining to the jury the difficulties he faced with Nadine Machiskinic’s case.
“It’s one of the most challenging cases I’ve been involved in,” Keddy said during his testimony via phone.
He explained to the jury Machiskinic’s case was like “putting together a puzzle where some of the pieces were missing.”
It’s why he wasn’t able to stand by his initial findings, as he received newer information about her death.
Keddy explained the “cocktail” of drugs in her system would not have been survivable by many, but after her 10-storey fall down the laundry chute, she made it to the hospital alive.
He also concluded because of her high-tolerance, she “may not have been incapacitated as originally believed,” in the first report.
Keddy also said the mixture of drugs could have made her more “energized” and “euphoric” and that she may have been able to get into the chute herself.
When asked about her mobility and function, Keddy said he couldn’t recall where he got that information but that it must have come from an official in the investigation.
The family’s lawyer Noah Evanchuk said despite getting answers during the inquest, it also raised more questions.
“It took far too long to get to the stage where we were looking at her toxicology, far too long to get to the point where we were looking at who the hotel guests were,” Evanchuk said.
“We’re faced with far too many questions still in this investigation.”
Evanchuk is referencing witness testimony from Sgt. Guy Criddle, a Regina police investigator.
On the stand, Criddle explained the police had every intention of requesting the hotel guestlist from the Delta Hotel.
In speaking to the hotel manager at the beginning of the investigation, Criddle said he was assured he could access that information when they wanted. He did not request it then.
The first reference to a formal request of the hotel guestlist came up in November, ten months after Machiskinic’s death.
But when police actually tried, many of the names and information were already gone.
Her aunt Delores Stevenson said she believes race was a factor in the slow response.
“I get that impression that she was an indigenous woman found in a hotel and the assumptions were made that she was passed out… or overdosing before even considering the fact that she’s under a laundry chute and she’s seriously and critically injured,” Stevenson said.
The jury is now charged with the difficult task of determining the facts of the case. They must decide the manner of death in how Machiskinic died and by what means.
They can also provide recommendations to all of the agencies involved.
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