Machiskinic family pushing to identify two men in video
Delores Stevenson, the aunt of Nadine Machiskinic, has asked why the Regina Police Service (RPS) removed a video image of two unidentified men from its website barely two months after the force had asked for public assistance on their identities.
Machiskinic, 29, died after plunging 10 storeys down a hotel laundry chute at the Delta Regina Hotel in January 2015, in a case that became infamous for blunders by authorities. After a June 2016 intervention by Justice Minister Gordon Wyant, the case went to an inquest in March, and the city police investigation is now being independently reviewed by the RCMP.
Though the RCMP probe is not a re-investigation of the case, Stevenson
believes the RPS should re-distribute the image of the two men seen on hotel surveillance entering an elevator with a woman presumed to be Machiskinic at 3:17 a.m. that night.
“These individuals were seen with Nadine minutes before she died,” she said. “They’re a big link in this whole investigation and it would be helpful if we knew who these men are.”
Stevenson also repeated a claim that gained attention earlier this week, saying RPS leadership told her before the inquest that at least one of the men had been identified.
Regina police have firmly denied this, saying a man was spoken to but deemed not to have been involved.
“I think that if the RPS release their images to the public, then I think the public has a right to (get) an update on these individuals,” Stevenson said. “Even the interview or whatever conversation they had with the individual, was never part of the inquest. I want to know why.”
Responding to emailed questions, the RPS said one person was tracked, interviewed, and then eliminated from the investigation.
“(T)he Regina Police Service has never identified the two individuals on that video,” an email read.
“Our investigators believed at one point they thought they knew who one of the men was; they travelled out of province to interview him. He denied having been at the hotel. His adamant denial and the lack of any reason or evidence to contest his denial left our investigators back at ‘square one’ on this point.
“What was testified to at the Inquest (testimony of Sgt. Troy Davis, under oath, after 3:10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28th) is fact. The identities of the two men are not known.”
“We cannot confirm the person was at the hotel; we cannot confirm he wasn’t at the hotel,” RPS said of the man in a later email. “We only have what he told us with no indication he was lying ...”
“Since the investigation is concluded unless there is new information received, we are not actively looking for the two men; we have exhausted that line of inquiry.”
At the inquest Davis — who had been belatedly put on the case — outlined how he had tried but failed to find the two men. “From there, we know nothing else,” he said of the point on the tape when the two men are seen entering the elevator, adding that when he went to get a full guest list from the hotel, one-third to half of guest names were nowhere to be found.
Stevenson questioned why, having only issued a request for public assistance in early May 2016, the RPS removed an image of the two men from its website on June 28, 2016.
Despite saying she was told by police Chief Evan Bray in recent days that the case remained open, the image is not on the RPS website — even on its “Can You Identify” section, which displays individuals not necessarily deemed case suspects.
“The picture was removed from the website since the investigators felt the unidentified subjects were not involved and the matter was not considered to be a criminal matter,” RPS said.
Asked why the police service — even if Machiskinic’s death was considered non-criminal — would not keep the photo up if the two men could provide some information as to what might have happened that night, a police spokeswoman said they would always welcome new information.
She said she couldn’t speak for the chief, but added that if Machiskinic’s family asked Bray to put the photo up for reassurance that some new information might come forward, he would likely accommodate that request.
The RPS would not provide an interview on the men but said by email that the man in question was interviewed after the image was posted, and before it was taken down.
Stevenson said that she has asked for a transcript of the interview but has been told that since the RCMP’s investigation into the case began, the RPS cannot speak about such details. With the men left unidentified, she wonders why the image has been taken down.
“I got word from Chief Evan Bray’s own mouth that this case is still open,” Stevenson said of a recent meeting. “He didn’t say anything about a closed investigation and he gave me his own word that this investigation is still open.”