P
hoebe Handsjuk was
alone in the dark,
dying on the floor of
a garbage room in a
luxury apartment
tower, having fallen
12 storeys down the
building’s main rub-
bish disposal chute. Her blood left a trail
on the floor as she tried to crawl towards
the door, dragging her broken body
across the ground to try to escape the
filthy room. The concierge who later
found the 24-year-old’s body initially
mistook her for a mannequin that some-
one had tossed away with the trash.
It was a bizarre way to die. Police
who arrived at Balancea Apartments in
Melbourne said they had never seen
anything like it. Phoebe had plunged
down the small rubbish chute of the
upmarket St Kilda Road building. She
survived the 30-metre fall but died soon
after from blood loss, after the rubbish
compactor blade all but severed her
right foot. Phoebe fought for her life,
even as it drained away, but died, face-
up, by the rubbish room door.
News of her death on December 2,
2010, so shocked her mother, Natalie,
that she sank to her knees in the
gutter outside her Clifton Hill home,
in Melbourne’s north, wailing: “No!
No! No! It’s not true!” Phoebe’s grand-
father, Lorne Campbell, a retired
police detective, was phoned by his son,
Matt, Phoebe’s uncle
and then director of tel-
evision at SBS, at about
10pm. “Dad, there is no
way to say this softly,
Phoebe’s dead.”
How and why she
died is a disturbing tale
of alleged cover-ups,
police bungling, drugs
and alleged murder. Six
years after Phoebe’s violent end, her
family is still searching for answers. Her
mother says she cannot get thoughts of
her eldest child and only daughter out of
her mind: a vibrant, but troubled young
woman with a bright smile. Her absence
has “completely shattered” her family.
“Nothing will ever be the same for us.”
The days since the death have been
shrouded in sadness, frustration and
anger. Despite a coroner’s ruling thatPhoebe’s death was accidental and didn’t
involve a third party – which ignored the
advice of his own assisting counsel –
question marks remain over the case.
Why were there unexplained bruises on
Handsjuk’s wrists and upper arms? Why
was there blood and a smashed glass
in her apartment? Why were there no
fingerprints on the garbage chute door?
“It is the truth we are missing here,”
Natalie says. “We are being told that our
daughter, granddaughter and sister put
herself into this thing because she was a
damaged, disturbed girl and it’s just not
true. I don’t know what happened, I just
feel sure she didn’t put herself down that
chute, either accidentally or on purpose.”
An account of the death of Phoebe
Handsjuk is explored in a new book,
Into The Darkness (Scribe Publications,
$35). Melbourne-based author Robin
Bowles says she was inspired by Natalie’s
“fierce fight for justice”.
“She’s very determined, despite the
pain she has gone through. She’s still
angry that there is no resolution for
her family,” says Bowles.
“Phoebe was so beautiful
and for her to die in that
way, it is as if you are say-
ing to the world you are
nothing but garbage.”
I ask Robin what she
believes happened to
Phoebe. “Let me say
what I think didn’t hap-
pen,” she replies. “I don’t
think Phoebe put herself down that
chute. I think someone else was involved.”T
he story of how Phoebe died is
not the whole story. She was
born on May 9, 1986, the
Chinese year of the tiger, to
Natalie and Len, a psychiatrist, and
later sister to brothers Tom and Nikolai.
Natalie called her only daughter her
Tiger Cub. They grew up on a big blockin Richmond, in Melbourne’s inner-east,
in a rambling house with a slate roof
that Phoebe liked to climb on top of and
stare at the sky. She enjoyed physical
challenges, including rock climbing and
hiking. Her teacher at the nearby Steiner
school said she had never met such a
strong child.
At 14, Phoebe was “quite hormonal,
romantic, intuitive and very sensitive”,
her grandmother Jeanette Campbell
told the inquest into her death.
At age 15, she started hanging out
with the “wrong crowd”, experimenting
with drugs like alcohol, speed, ecstasy
and marijuana. She ran away from home
and lived in a squat in the city’s north for
eight weeks, with an ex-prisoner, his
partner and their baby. After returning
home, she began taking antidepressants
to curb her mood swings.
By age 16, as Bowles reveals in her
book, Phoebe was in a relationship with
a teacher who was almost twice her age- starting a pattern for falling in love
with older men. At the same time, she
was struggling to deal with the decline
of her parents’ marriage.
Natalie says it was her intolerance
for alcohol, in particular, that was
responsible for driving her off course.
“There are people who can’t cope
with it and she was one of them,” she
says. “She was too sensitive, she was
affected too quickly and easily. She
would become incapacitated after only a
couple of cans of pre-mixed vodka.”
Y 5 @?\EE9:?<
Phoebe put
herself down that
chute ... someone
else was involved”- Robin Bowles, author
58 marieclaire.com.auInvestigation
FAMILY
MATTERS
Phoebe’s fate
has “completely
shattered” her
family. Left: as a
toddler. Below:
with mum
Natalie and
(right) with
brothers,
Nikolai, left,
and Tom. Below
right: Phoebe –
the big smile
of a troubled
young woman.