The family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to re-open the case.
On Feb. 11, 2025, Elizabeth Nolin, 72, was found naked in a garbage chute receptacle at the condo building where she and her fiancé were staying while on vacation. The Honolulu Police Department investigated Nolin’s death and deemed it a suicide
But more than a year later, her family filed a complaint with the police department, citing concerns that its conclusion was made too quickly.
“It definitely came across in the record that this was a documentation exercise and not an actual investigation,” Geneva Claesson, one of Nolin’s children, told CBC Radio’s Edmonton AM.
According to the police report, the day before Nolin died, she had spent the afternoon golfing with her fiancé, returning to their condo, in Honolulu’s Waikiki neighbourhood, at 7:00 p.m. Nolin’s fiancé told investigators that he took a short nap and couldn’t find Nolin when he woke up at 8:00 p.m.
LISTEN | Family wants Hawaii death reinvestigated:
He tried contacting Nolin several times and searched for her, before phoning police at 11:20 p.m., the police report said. He phoned police a second time when Nolin still hadn’t returned by 2 a.m. the next day.
Police arrived at their condo, where responding officers found Nolin in the trash receptacle.
The ensuing investigation found she voluntarily walked naked and put herself feet-first into the 10-storey garbage chute.
Investigators interviewed the woman’s family and friends. According to the police report, her fiancé said Nolin had been sad after receiving a diagnosis that breast cancer had spread to her back.
Nolin’s fiancé also told investigators that, in the months before she died, Nolin had a bucket list she wanted to accomplish, she started throwing personal items like shoes and clothing down the chute, and seemed to be putting her affairs in order, the police report said.
According to the autopsy report, Nolin’s death was a result of multiple blunt force injuries sustained in a fall. The examiner deemed the manner of death was suicide.
In a statement to CBC News, the Honolulu Police Department said the manner of death was determined after a comprehensive investigation, that included an examination of the scene, physical evidence and documentation.
“Based on the totality of the evidence and forensic findings, the investigation was completed and presented to the Office of the Medical Examiner for final review,” the statement said.
(Submitted by Teresa Rennick)
Claesson said the idea her mother took her own life was “jarring” for her and her siblings.
“It was so antithetical to what I understand about my mother,” she said.
It left her with concerns about the investigation, she said, including there being no record of cancer being found in the autopsy.
Nolin’s children believe police didn’t abide by their standards and policies, namely evidence collection and analysis, Claesson said. But their biggest concern was that police and the medical examiner deemed their mother’s death a suicide prematurely.
Claesson travels to Hawaii, retraces mother’s footsteps
Honolulu was a special place to Nolin, Claesson said. She lived there for many years with her family in the 1980s, and continued visiting each winter after. On the anniversary of Nolin’s death, Claesson travelled to Hawaii to investigate the scene of her mother’s death and to scatter her ashes on her favourite beach.
For her family, she said, this trip allowed them to experience Waikiki the way her mother did in her final days.
Before Nolin died, she had gone for a walk on the beach outside their condo, police said. Claesson retraced her mother’s footsteps, and then went to the garbage chute.
Building residents helped Claesson measure the chute, then she tried climbing inside. She said she couldn’t.
“I’m the same size as my mother and there’s nothing to hold on to,” Claesson said.
According to the police report, the door to the chute was three feet off the ground, and the chute’s circumference was about 17 inches. The autopsy report says Nolin was five-foot-one and weighed 131 pounds.
“It just reinforced for me the implausibility of her doing this herself.”
If a second investigation is conducted and it reaches the same conclusion, Claesson said she and her family will accept it.
Turning pain into purpose
Claesson has taken time off of work to try to answer questions her family still has surrounding her mother’s death.
The two had drifted apart years before Nolin died, she said. But examining the circumstances surrounding her death has allowed Claesson to heal and reconcile their relationship.
“Some relationships can be fraught, but you think there’s time,” she said. “I wasn’t able to do [this] in life, so I’m turning something really painful into something personal, purposeful, and healing.”
While this past year has been very challenging for Claesson and her family, she said they have grown to understand Nolin better.
“Finding her dignity in this death is really meaningful for me,” she said.