The death of a woman who was found at the bottom of a laundry chute in Regina occurred in an undetermined matter, an inquest jury decided Thursday.
Machiskinic, 29, was found at the Delta Hotel in January 2015. She later died in hospital.
An autopsy found she died of blunt force trauma after falling 10 storeys and the death was ruled accidental, with the coroner noting that the mother of four had drugs in her system.
The jury reached a decision Thursday that the manner of death was undetermined. Earlier in the afternoon, the jury asked for clarification about the manner of death.
They were advised by the coroner that there was no evidence to support death was natural, suicide or homicide, so had to be accidental or undetermined.
“This whole inquest was to find out the circumstances around her death and to get the truth. And I think that we uncovered a lot of truths this week, with respect to how the investigation was handled,” Machiskinic’s aunt Delores Stevenson said.
“The fact that the manner of death was undetermined. I think it raises more questions about my niece and how she died.”
The jury’s one recommendation was for laundry chutes in hotels to be locked at all access points and accessible only by staff.
Machiskinic’s death has been one shrouded in mystery and mishaps. The family’s lawyer, Noah Evanchuk, said it was clear during the inquest that there were errors throughout the entire investigation.
“They obviously saw the same red flags from the very beginning, that both myself, Ms.Stevenson and the family and anyone was watching this, that this was a botched investigation from the very beginning,” Evanchuk said.
From the beginning, police were not called until about 60 hours after her fall. Her toxicology samples were not sent until six months after it was taken due to a miscommunication and police hadn’t requested a hotel guest list until almost a year later.
That coupled with two contradicting autopsy reports made Stevenson believe her niece did not get the dignity she deserved.
“A young aboriginal women found at the delta hotel, everyone’s assumption is she’s drunk, passed out or overdosing on drugs. There’s never an assumption that she could be critically injured in basement,” Stevenson said.
Ministry of Justice spokesperson Drew Wilby said he wasn’t surprised about the decision, and it speaks volumes about the process.
“The process in the administration of justice worked, in the sense that an inquest was held, a determination in the manner of death than what was there before,” Wilby said.
“I’m not surprised that that may have come because coming into this I think we all expected that that manner of death may change.”
“To see the change in the manner of death that shows the jury has done their work. They deliberated, they considered all of the evidence and they made that decision.”
Before entering deliberations, the jury attended three days witness testimonies, interviews and video surveillance during the coroner’s inquest.
On the first day, Const. Keith Malcolm told the inquest that Regina police made an error when they delayed sending toxicology samples for testing several months.
Malcolm thought another officer in the forensics unit had sent the samples for testing and the other officer thought Malcolm had done it.
READ MORE: Family has questions about Regina woman’s laundry chute death as inquest begins
On the second day, Dr. Shaun Ladham said Machiskinic’s injuries suggest she probably went down feet first. Ladham also told the inquest there was a possibility she went backwards and head first.
READ MORE: Doctor tells inquest Regina woman dead in laundry chute went down feet first
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 said.
The jury also heard from Regina police detective Troy Davis of the Major Crimes Unit who testified he was 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.” The two men have never been identified.
During the third day of deliberations, forensic toxicologist Christopher Keddy called the case “challenging.” He also said 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.
Sgt. Guy Criddle, a Regina police investigator, was also a witness. Criddle said he spoke to a hotel manager at the beginning of the investigation and was told he could access that information when police wanted it. He did not request it then.
The first reference to a formal request of the hotel guest list came up in November, 10 months after Machiskinic’s death. Many of the names and information were gone from the guest list.
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