18-year-old freshman Liz Hamel<\/a> was found fighting for her life on the sidewalk under a UC Santa Barbara residence balcony, police say the case is closed.\u00a0UCSB police told SFGATE that after interviewing a person of interest who was with Liz that night, her death has been ruled an accident, but Liz\u2019s family said they still have unanswered questions. The Hamels’ family lawyer also contends that the police investigation may show “bias.” Adding further confusion to the investigation, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney\u2019s Office told\u00a0SFGATE on Monday that the case is \u201cstill under review.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\")
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\u201cFollowing a thorough investigation into the tragic passing of one of our students outside a residence hall in February 2025, UCPD forwarded its findings to the Santa Barbara District Attorney for review,\u201d UC Santa Barbara spokesperson Kiki Reyes told SFGATE over email. \u201cBased on the totality of the exhaustive investigation, which entailed a systematic review and account of all available information and numerous interviews, including a person of interest identified during the course of the investigation, it is the Department\u2019s conclusion that the incident was an accidental fall that resulted in the student\u2019s passing. Our hearts and thoughts are with the family and friends who have suffered a terrible loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Courtesy Alain Hamel<\/p>\n
On the evening of\u00a0Feb. 14, 2025, Liz went out with friends in\u00a0Isla Vista to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day. A short walk from her freshman dorm, they hung out at Lao Wang Noodle Bar, where Liz was captured on cellphone footage with a young blond man. She left the restaurant with him at 10:05 p.m., friends remembered. Twenty-one minutes later, she was found lying on a sidewalk, unconscious and with severe injuries, under a third floor walkway at a campus dorm. She died in the hospital six days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The investigation into her death by UCSB police\u00a0revealed no news for months. In June, Liz\u2019s father, Alain Hamel, and his lawyer, Tyrone Maho, held a press conference at the spot where Liz was found to try to find answers, specifically concerning the mysterious man who was last seen with Liz on the night she died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the press conference, Maho told reporters that after spending about two hours at the noodle bar in Isla Vista that night, Liz walked out with the man she had \u201cbeen very close with\u201d in the restaurant. She, apparently accidentally, left her phone and identification in the restaurant; both were later picked up by friends.<\/p>\n
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Liz Hamel was studying biology and chemistry at UC Santa Barbara at the time of her death.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Courtesy Alain Hamel<\/p>\n
The pair apparently headed not to Liz\u2019s freshman dorm \u2014 the San Miguel Residence Hall \u2014 but to another residence on campus, the San Rafael dorm. \u201cShe lived on the other side of campus,\u201d Alain Hamel said. The dorm where Liz apparently fell to her death is not on the route from the restaurant to her dorm.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne doesn\u2019t just stumble across this dorm. It\u2019s not the first place one would go to. So we believe he might have known someone here. He might have been staying here,\u201d Maho said of the mystery man.<\/p>\n
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The photo shared from the noodle bar shows a man in a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans leaning forward. The man was holding Liz in the original footage, but Maho told reporters she was edited out to respect her privacy.<\/p>\n
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This flyer was shared across UC Santa Barbara by Liz\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Handout<\/p>\n
At about 10:26 p.m., Liz was found nearly lifeless on the sidewalk at the San Rafael dorms. A passerby, who was not the man she left the restaurant with, found her and called 911. She still had a pulse at the time and was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. She was pronounced dead nearly a week later on\u00a0Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Now, after UCSB police concluded that Liz died of an accidental fall, while sharing no further details, her family still has questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are aware of UC Police\u2019s conclusion, we still have unanswered questions about how Liz died,\u201d Alain Hamel told SFGATE on Monday. \u201cWe will continue working with our counsel and the appropriate authorities to ensure that all available evidence is carefully reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that there remains critical evidence to obtain, and we disagree with the\u00a0UCSB Police Department statement that there can be a conclusion made in connection with Ms. Hamel\u2019s death,”\u00a0Maho, the family’s lawer, said in a statement. “We are aware of key inconsistencies that remain unaddressed, creating more questions than answers. \u00a0Further, we are concerned that there may be an inherent conflict of interest with the UCSB Police Department investigating this matter, and we could potentially be dealing with a biased review of the events that occurred on February 14, 2025. Our own investigation continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the brief statement send to SFGATE on Monday, the district attorney\u2019s office said that \u201cthe case is still under review,\u201d meaning that charges could still be brought.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Liz moved from her family home in Bellevue, Washington, in 2024 to study biology and chemistry in California and wanted to become a scientist.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I are devastated,\u201d Alain Hamel told SFGATE. \u201cLiz was our only child and we are still trying to understand how to go on without her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police say Liz Hamel, 18, died an accidental death at UC Santa Barbara in February 2025.\u00a0 Courtesy Alain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1894,1692],"class_list":{"0":"post-88912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-sfgcentralca","12":"tag-sfgnews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}