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Emily Nolin, 72, was found dead in a garbage receptacle in Honolulu. Her family has filed for her case to be reviewed, after Honolulu police deemed her death a suicide. (Submitted by Teresa Rennick)<\/p>\nThe family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to re-open the case.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 11, 2025, Elizabeth Nolin, 72, was found naked in a garbage chute receptacle at the condo building where she and her fianc\u00e9 were staying while on vacation. The Honolulu Police Department investigated Nolin\u2019s death and deemed it a suicide<\/p>\n
But more than a year later, her family filed a complaint with the police department, citing concerns that its conclusion was made too quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely came across in the record that this was a documentation exercise and not an actual investigation,\u201d Geneva Claesson, one of Nolin\u2019s children, told CBC Radio\u2019s Edmonton AM.<\/p>\n
According to the police report, the day before Nolin died, she had spent the afternoon golfing with her fianc\u00e9, returning to their condo, in Honolulu\u2019s Waikiki neighbourhood, at 7:00 p.m. Nolin\u2019s fianc\u00e9 told investigators that he took a short nap and couldn\u2019t find Nolin when he woke up at 8:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Family wants Hawaii death reinvestigated:<\/p>\n
Edmonton AM11:01Family wants Hawaii death reinvestigated<\/p>\n
Family members of an Edmonton woman who died in Waikiki, Hawaii are looking for answers. Elizabeth Nolin was found dead in a garbage chute receptacle at an apartment where she was staying on February 11, 2025. She was 72 years old. The Honolulu Police Department investigated her death and concluded it was a suicide. Nolin’s three children filed a complaint with Honolulu police to reopen and reinvestigate the case. Geneva Claesson is one of Nolin’s three children.She lives in Calgary and joins us now.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t returned by 2 a.m. the next day.<\/p>\n
Police arrived at their condo, where responding officers found Nolin in the trash receptacle.<\/p>\n
The ensuing investigation found she voluntarily walked naked and put herself feet-first into the 10-storey garbage chute.<\/p>\n
Investigators interviewed the woman\u2019s family and friends. According to the police report, her fianc\u00e9 said Nolin had been sad after receiving a diagnosis that breast cancer had spread to her back.<\/p>\n
Nolin\u2019s fianc\u00e9 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the autopsy report, Nolin\u2019s death was a result of multiple blunt force injuries sustained in a fall. The examiner deemed the manner of death was suicide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased 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,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Emily Nolin, 72, was found dead in a garbage receptacle in Honolulu. Her family has filed for her case to be reviewed, after Honolulu police deemed her death a suicide. (Submitted by Teresa Rennick)<\/p>\n
Claesson said the idea her mother took her own life was \u201cjarring\u201d for her and her siblings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so antithetical to what I understand about my mother,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It left her with concerns about the investigation, she said, including there being no record of cancer being found in the autopsy.<\/p>\n
Nolin\u2019s children believe police didn\u2019t 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\u2019s death a suicide prematurely.<\/p>\n
Claesson travels to Hawaii, retraces mother\u2019s footsteps\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s death, Claesson travelled to Hawaii to investigate the scene of her mother\u2019s death and to scatter her ashes on her favourite beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For her family, she said, this trip allowed them to experience Waikiki the way her mother did in her final days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before Nolin died, she had gone for a walk on the beach outside their condo, police said. Claesson retraced her mother\u2019s footsteps, and then went to the garbage chute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Building residents helped Claesson measure the chute, then she tried climbing inside. She said she couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m the same size as my mother and there’s nothing to hold on to,\u201d Claesson said.<\/p>\n
According to the police report, the door to the chute was three feet off the ground, and the chute\u2019s circumference was about 17 inches. The autopsy report says Nolin was five-foot-one and weighed 131 pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just reinforced for me the implausibility of her doing this herself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If a second investigation is conducted and it reaches the same conclusion, Claesson said she and her family will accept it.<\/p>\n
Turning pain into purpose<\/p>\n
Claesson has taken time off of work to try to answer questions her family still has surrounding her mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome relationships can be fraught, but you think there’s time,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to do [this] in life, so I\u2019m turning something really painful into something personal, purposeful, and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this past year has been very challenging for Claesson and her family, she said they have grown to understand Nolin better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding her dignity in this death is really meaningful for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-551332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}