Phoebe Handsjuk Case

December 2nd, 2010, it was evening time in Melbourne Australia. Phoebe Handsjuk, a 24 year old woman was found dead on the floor of a refuse compactor room at the bottom of her apartment building. She lived in Balencea, located on St. Kilda Road, which is one of the the most luxurious apartment buildings in Melbourne. Phoebe’s body was found by one of the apartment’s concierge who was looking for a broom to clean up a mess. She entered the room to find the lifeless body of a young woman. Phoebe had fallen feet first down the whole building, starting at the 12th floor refuse room all the way to the waste disposal shaft to the compactor below. Although she fell more than 40 meters, this was not the cause of her death, it was in fact due to deep

The morning of her death however, CCTV footage showed Phoebe leaving the Balencea apartment building due to a fire alarm evacuation. Aside from that, no other CCTV footage was collect until much later. The primary coroner assigned to the case, Peter White stuck to his decision in classifying Phoebe’s death as a suicide. Many were unsettled with his findings for a multiple reasons. One being, aside from all the scientific evidence against it, the majority of his co workers, including his assisting counsel, advised not to proceed with his original finding. Amidst all the contradicting evidence which signified suicide, Peter White stuck to his decision all throughout the process of the investigation as well as the lengthy inquest. This was contrary to popular belief that there was a third party involvement in this case as well as foul play. Some evidence which supported the claim that it could not have been a suicide include: the fact that the garbage chute which Phoebe entered was two feet by nine inches, therefore making it incredibly difficult to enter. As well as the fact that no fingerprints were found on the handle of the chute nor on the outside of

Claiming that the coroner's classification of a suicide was “no more than an extremely improbable theory, yet he had advanced it as a solid ‘finding’.” Peter White’s findings could only be justified by the proof that no other party was or could have been involved. However, Campbell pointed out that “... there was no evidence positively precluding the involvement of another party. There are too many uncertainties in the evidence (due largely to deficiencies in the police handling of the case) to allow any positive finding as to whether or not another party was involved.” Campbell said that right from the start “I believed she had been murdered” On December 7th, the homicide detectives announced that no second party was involved in the death of Phoebe Handsjuk. Antony Hampel who was Phoebe's partner at the time, claims that during the evening of her death, he had been working on his computer during the time phoebe had allegedly entered the garbage chute. Hampel arrived home at the Balencea at 6:09pm, the proof of this being his entry swipe in the