Woman told guest hotel was on fire, inquest hears
One of the last people to possibly see Nadine Machiskinic mobile before she seemingly plunged 10 stories down a hotel laundry chute told police he was awakened by a woman banging on his hotel room door and claiming there was a fire.
When he opened his door a crack — worried it might be a scam — William Creeden saw two elementary-school aged children peeking around behind the woman and assumed they were with her, he told police.
It’s just one more puzzling piece of evidence as an inquest tries to unravel the events that led to Machiskinic’s Jan. 10, 2015, death.
The 29-year-old Regina woman was found unconscious shortly after 4 a.m. in the basement laundry room of Regina’s Delta Hotel.
Creeden, who resides in Kansas City, was at the hotel for a union event. It’s believed he was the only registered 10th floor guest that night.
At 3:45 a.m. a fire alarm on that floor was pulled. It’s located beside a utility room door, behind which is the 53-by-46-centimetre door that lifts for the laundry chute.
In his videotaped statement taken by Regina in a U.S. law office, Creeden recalled that the alarm went off about the same time as the banging.
“She said something to the effect the hotel is on fire,” he said. Creeden called the front desk.
Both he and security officer Joseph Pelletier, whose videotaped statement was also played, told police they saw the glass was broken on a case that holds the fire extinguisher, which Pelletier said lay on the floor. Creeden also recalled trash strewn at one end of the hallway, while Pelletier remembered seeing candies on the floor.
The security officer saw the same candies about a half-hour later, scattered around Machiskinic in the laundry room.
Interviewed more than a year after Machiskinic’s death, Creeden didn’t recall what the woman looked like. But Pelletier, interviewed back in January 2015, said Creeden had told him that the woman was in a black coat, was “native,” with dark hair — like Machiskinic.
Creeden repeatedly told police there was never a woman — other than cleaning staff — in his hotel room. Female DNA, not matching Machiskinic, was found when forensic officers swept the room Jan. 12.
Pelletier said hotel staff believed the unresponsive Machiskinic was passed out. There wasn’t any visible blood, and there were two prescription pill bottles beside her.
Likewise, a paramedic testified nothing appeared suspicious, so police weren’t called that morning. A police investigation only got underway on Jan. 12 when a preliminary pathology exam found several rib fractures.
By then, some potential evidence had disappeared, including Machiskinic’s purse, her running shoes and possibly a second cellphone.
Neither the paramedic nor Pelletier could confirm if in fact Machiskinic was actually wearing shoes.
She was pronounced dead in hospital at 6:33 a.m.
“The trauma was significant and not survivable,” forensic pathologist Dr. Shaun Ladham testified.
A full autopsy revealed multiple fractured ribs, spinal fractures, “significant” head trauma, contusions, brain and organ injuries that were consistent with a high velocity fall, said Ladham. He believes she fell down that laundry chute.
Less certain is how she got in there. From the 10th floor, the chute plunges some 100 feet, with a slight incline at the second floor.
He said most of the trauma is to the back of her body, consistent with such a fall. He thought she possibly came down feet first, given the injuries.
In an initial “working document” to then-chief coroner Kent Stewart, Ladham had opined that Machiskinic was likely physically incapable of entering that chute on her own given the high levels of drugs and alcohol found in her body upon death. He said that preliminary opinion was based on information he had at the time.
However, as he learned more from the police investigation and other experts, who examined the interaction of drugs and Machiskinic’s level of tolerance as a drug user, he revised his opinion for the finalized report. Ladham decided it was also possible she got into the chute on her own.
Sgt. Troy Davis, brought into the case in January last year, tried to no avail to find two men believed to have entered the elevator with Machiskinic that night.
“From there, we know nothing else,” he testified. He tried to get hotel guest lists and work through them, but unfortunately by then, as many as half the names had been purged from the Hotel’s system.