Every Town - Australia’s STRANGEST Unsolved Mystery: 12 Floors Down

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

This week's story is one that will stick with you. It just has too much going on and none of it really ads up to paint a clear picture as to what went down. It’s brutal and it isn’t just a mystery, it’s an entire rabbit hole where the deeper you dig, the more twisted it all gets.  👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/O8FNDz3_V7E 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠ ⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠ 💀 MERCH: ⁠https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/⁠ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠   🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠ 👁Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to dive into the unknown? Join me, Peyton Moreland, on Into the Dark, the true crime podcast from Ono Media with a hint of horror and mystery. Each week, I dive into a different case, breaking down the facts and pondering the age-old question, why do people do what they do? Now, sometimes the answer isn't so clear, and that's why I'll also explore conspiracy theories, hauntings, and all things spooky. From the Green River Killer to the Mothman incident, we will unravel all of the questions that keep us up at night. So don't miss out. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform.

New episodes drop every Wednesday. Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. Phoebe Handjuck was just 24 years old when she was found at the bottom of a garbage shoot in the basement of an apartment building in Melbourne. She'd fallen 12 stories. There were indication she survived for some time, but tragically didn't make it in the end. And the questions that everyone began asking are the ones that still linger on today. How exactly did this happen and why?

Hey guys, it's Andrew, and welcome back to another episode of Everytown. Thanks for stopping by. This week's story is one that will stick with you. It just has too much going on and none of it really adds up to paint a clear picture as to what we're went down. And it's brutal, and it isn't just a mystery. It's an entire rabbit hole where the deeper you dig, the more twisted it all gets. Let's head on over to the land down under and investigate the mysterious death of Phoebe Hanjerk. Epibe was born on May 9th of 1986 to parents Len and Natalie. Growing up, her mom affectionately referred to her as her tiger cub. Right from the beginning,

she had a little bit of a wild streak. She was fearless and full of energy. She was better known as mainly vibrant and cheeky. When she walked into a room, it was full eyes on her. She had something, yeah. Phoebe was super social in school. I had a tight-knaked group of friends. She was into rock climbing, karate, and even kickboxing.

So from the outside, well, everything looked on the up and up. And as you know, a lot of times, when people are struggling inside of those around them and on the wiser. And that was Phoebe to a tea. She started battling depression in her early teen years. Her parents got a divorce around them, which hit her hard. Hard enough, in fact, that she stopped talking to her dad for a while. Eventually, they found their way back to one another, but it definitely took some time. At 13, her and her friends had begun sneaking out to clubs and bars. They had fake IDs and barely any money, maybe 20 bucks between them, but somehow they'd drink all night.

They grew up fast and learned how to get guys to buy them alcohol, sometimes even drugs. Her mom took notice of what was happening. When it came to her relationships, she saw her daughter being drawn to older men, those who could provide something she was looking for. Approval, maybe, security. Her grandma Jeanette agreed she saw it too, was Phoebe and her. had always been close. Her own dad was 14 years older than her mom. Her mother also dated a teacher at the age of 16 and guess what? Well, Phoebe did too. So a bit of a pattern here. That teacher

Phoebe was with was twice her age. Pretty two years old and it wasn't just a little fling here. This guy lived with her family at one point. That relationship eventually ended but the pattern didn't. He moved on to another older guy and then another. These relationships started out intense, full-on, like the real deal, but he usually always ended in disaster. The man typically had issues with her drinking habits and the way she spoke to other guys. Phoebe was flirty, free, and unfiltered. He couldn't control her. And some of her partners didn't handle that well.

By the time she turned 23, she met the man who would become her boyfriend at the time of her death, Anthony Hample. Most people called him Aunt, and he was in his early 40s, a successful events promoter with some big-name clients under his belt, including Michael Jackson, ACDC, and Nicole Kidman. On top of this, he came from a very powerful family. He's from a prominent legal family. His father, he's a retired Supreme Court judge and stepmother, a county court judge. Feeby had met Anne at a hair salon where she worked the front desk. He was a regular there, handsome, wealthy, and charming. In just five months into dating, Phoebe then moved in to his luxury high-rise apartment on the 12th floor in Melbourne.

The Balencia building was luxury, but it wasn't exactly her dream space. She would have liked it to have been a little more free-flowing, but Aunt liked his apartment to always look untouched, clinical even. He liked it modern, clean, and everything had its own place. In fact, his instructions for his cleaner were to make it look like no one lives there. And so then, there were barely any signs Phoebe lived there at all. No art on the walls, no mess or creativity. In other words, none of her. Just a few photos and I was about it.

But she couldn't really complain, right? In a relationship with an older man, there's typically a power dynamic going on. where he holds the upper hand, and that's how it was here. And he treated her like arm candy, didn't like her boozing or going out on the town. And she was young and free, and didn't want to be told what to do. The relationship in this sense had always been a bit rocky, but in the weeks leading up to her death, things escalated. She tried to leave Aunt not once before different times. The family and friends all noticed that something was wrong as Phoebe was behaving more erratic,

and unpredictable. Years earlier, Beebe's mom had promised her an overseas trip for her 21st birthday. She hadn't taken her up on it at the time, but suddenly it was on her mind again. On October 5th, she emailed Natalie and asked her if the offer still stood. She said she might need to take it up quickly, and with little notice. Just over two weeks later, on October 20th, she then packed up and left the apartment she shared with aunt. And this time, she said it was for good. She went straight to her grandmother's place.

That was her safe haven. And she told her she was done with aunt, done with drinking, and done with the life she'd been living. She said she wanted to resign from her job and get sober and start fresh. Her grandmother told her she thought that was a great idea, but also that she needed to do it properly, and go back and the relationship in person, hand in her resignation, and do it all right.

While she stayed at her grandmother's for the next couple days, seemed serious about turning things around. She lined up a possible new job and even went to an AA meeting, so it looked like she was taking real steps forward. But then, just four days later, on October 24th, she went back to the apartment. Aunt had convinced her to give things one more shot. It was another familiar pattern for her. Over and over, she'd leave, make plans to change, and then somehow she'd end up back

in that apartment again. On November 17th, Phoebe and Aunt went to dinner at the home of one of Phoebe's close friends, Linda. It didn't go well. Aunt got upset that Phoebe was on her phone, texting somebody. They argued right there at the table. In the end, he stormed out and left her behind. And Phoebe stayed that night with Linda. The next morning, they drove on over to the apartment to pack Phoebe's stuff.

This time, it was going to be different. This time, the relationship was really over. And Phoebe ended up staying with Linda again the following night, November 19th. When she woke up the next day, she seemed okay, calm even. But then, Aunt called. He asked if they could talk, and Phoebe agreed. And just like that, she moved back in with them again. It was the definition of a toxic relationship.

And over the next week and a half, this sort of breakup and reunion every couple days happened a few more times. And here's where things start to get strange. On Monday, November 29th, around midday, Phoebe called her psychiatrist, asking if she could come in for a session. This is worth mentioning as it shows her mental state not being in a great place. He really wanted to talk to someone, but there were no appointments available, though she ended up catching up with a friend from school instead. When Aunt returned home from work that evening at 6.03 p.m., when Phoebe wasn't there. It wasn't until 12.29 a.m. that she found. finally came home. The next morning at 9 a.m. when Aunt left for work, Phoebe was still asleep.

The previous night, she was seen hitting up several bars, so she was likely hung over, not feeling great when she did wake up. And a text she sent at 1033 a.m. reflected that. It was a mass text sent to a few friends and family that read, Hi, family, I am in bed and about to sleep. And when I wake, I will transform into the most incredible human being you have ever seen. Not? I will go to the hospital. It's safer there. And I hear the special tonight is tomato soup. Delicious, nutritious. I love you all very much, but not enough to send an individual text. Sorry about that, but time is sleep and I must be on my way. Merely, merrily, life is but a dream, X.O. And that text came across weird. Immediately, Phoebe's

family felt like something was wrong, even like maybe she hadn't written it. At 10.35 a.m., Phoebe's grandmother called her, but no answer. And she called Aunt to ask if she was okay. And he told her that as far as he knew, yeah, she was good, saying he hadn't even seen the message. He explained that when he left for work, she was still sleeping, but that he would swing by the apartment later to check on her. That helped ease their worries, at least for a little while. Later that day, Aunt called her grandmother, saying he'd gone to the apartment and that Phoebe was still asleep, sleeping off a bender, were his words. He said he'd ask her to call them when she woke up, but there's one problem with that,

the key fob records. An aunt's building, you couldn't go anywhere without using your fob. Not the elevator, not the front door, not even the garage. everything was long, and the records show that Aunt left for work at 9 a.m. and didn't return until 7.33 p.m. That means he never came back in the middle of the day, so how did he check on her? Likely he was just putting the grandma at ease as a kind gesture and didn't really want to head back home. He had seen Phoebe sleep things off before, but then again, maybe there's something more to it. 2.17 p.m. that day, the apartment cleaner Sally let herself in for her usual Wednesday clean.

He was surprised to find Phoebe home as she had skipped out on work. Phoebe came out of the bedroom for a moment, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and said hello, and then went back to bed. And Sally later said Phoebe didn't appear drunk, she wasn't emotional, she didn't look depressed, she just seemed normal. And Sally finished cleaning and left around 5 p.m. Aunt then came home, as mentioned, at 7.33 p.m. He told police that he and Phoebe had a quiet night in, nothing out of the ordinary. Around 8 p.m., Phoebe called her dad, where they talked for about 11 minutes. She told him she was feeling hungover from her bender, but that aunt was taking good care of her.

She also told him, I need to stop doing this. And he didn't know it then, but that would be the last time you ever heard his daughter's voice. On December 1st, nothing out of the ordinary happens, but within 24 hours, Phoebe would be dead. There is no key fob usage from her, no CCTV cameras caught her, suggesting she stayed home that day. He also didn't talk to any of her family members, which was a little unusual, but nothing too crazy. On December 2nd, Aunt said he left Phoebe in bed around 8.30 a.m. at 9.45 a.m., Phoebe then sent an email. The first and last anyone sees of her is when a fire alarm at 1143 a.m. has the entire building evacuated. But it's a false alarm and she returns to the building seven minutes later.

CCTV shows her calmly walking out of the building with her dog and at 1150 she returned. That would be the last time Phoebe was seen alive. At 6.05 p.m. when Anne arrived home, Phoebe was there. But her purse, phone, and most importantly, keys were sitting on the kitchen counter. In the hallway of the apartment, he found a broken glass as well as some droplets of blood. He said he went into their bedroom and thereby her computer he found what he referred to as a shrine of sorts. It was a photo of him and Phoebe and a bunch of random notes. He said they were the kind of thing she wrote when she was drunk. Messy, emotional, not really co-kewarm. curant. But an interesting fact is that Aunt is the only one who saw this thing. He removed it by the time

police came, or so he says. Anne ordered some tie takeout and waited for Phoebe to arrive back. Just after APM, when the delivery guy got there, he told Aunt that the building was swarming with police cars and that an ambulance was also present and something big was happening. So what happened? Well, Beth, a concierge staff member, had a rubeau. arrive for her 4 p.m. shift. Part of her job that evening was to check the trash compactor room. It had just undergone maintenance and needed inspection. But later that shift around 7 p.m. when she tried to open the door, she couldn't.

Something was in the way. She pushed harder, using her shoulder this time. Finally, the door gave way, and that's when the sensor light flicked on. At first she thought she was looking at a mannequin wedged between the door and the wall, but then she saw the blood. It was everywhere. Trails across the floor, smeared on the door,

splashed across the walls. And then it was Phoebe lying there. Beth screamed and ran, then called the building manager who described her as inconsolable. Police arrived and paramedics followed, but when the EMTs tried to enter the room to check Phoebe, the police stopped them short.

And they said it was now officially a crime scene, so Phoebe was dead. However, one very disturbing aspect is it didn't appear like it had been instant. Based on the trails of blood around the room, Phoebe had survived a fall down the trash chute. She was conscious, dragging herself around the pitch-black room trying to find the door to get out.

Pretty lonely way to die. There's nothing nice about any of this, isn't it? And she obviously fought to get out of there. It's not really the sort of. a thing that a person who either accidentally or... I wouldn't do that. But she was a fighter. What did that room tell you about her fight in those last minutes?

Well, there was blood all or she'd crawled. She'd pulled herself right around the room, trying to find a way out, presumably. She was trying to get out of there. After the discovery of Phoebe's body, Eric, the building manager, told police there was CCTV in place, A footage that might have captured crucial clues, but there was a catch. The system had been acting up.

It was recording over itself too quickly, and Eric warned the officers to start downloading the footage immediately or risk losing it. They didn't listen. They brushed him off, and sure enough, what little footage may have existed was eventually recorded over. And, having been tipped off by the delivery driver, went downstairs to the foyer and approached police officer. And he told the officer he lived in the building and asked what was going on. When told, they found a woman's body, Anne immediately told them that his girlfriend was missing and asked if it could have been her.

He started blurting out that Phoebe had depression, named her medications, and explained she'd been struggling. The officer asked him to go back upstairs and grab a recent photo of her. And with that, it was confirmed. detectives followed Ant back up to his apartment to look around. What they found should have raised red flags, broken glass and blood on the floor inside the unit, and blood outside near the garbage chute room,

even a bed on the door handle. The apartment was a terrible mess. It was never a mess. It looked most of the times though nobody lived there. Later, police would find blood smeared on the door architrave, computer mouse, and study desk. However, very little evidence was collected. The entire process was rushed, careless even.

At 10 p.m., detectives were meeting with the forensics team. They searched the apartment and found Phoebe's journal, and more blood on a desk, and her computer mouse. They found medication, Symbolta, well as a sleeping pill called Stillnachs and others. They checked the shoot door on the 12th floor for fingerprints, The room itself, even a pipe running through it, but there were no usable prints. None of Phoebe's were found on any of it.

The autopsy the next morning took over three hours. The cause of death was listed as multiple injuries due to a fall down a 100-foot garbage shoot. Every major artery in her leg had been cut and she had multiple fractures, though no signs of neck trauma, which would suggest she went down the shoot feet first. And that means there's no way she actually could have fallen in. She either went in herself or was dropped in there. Adding to the mystery of how and why she ended up in the garbage shoot,

Phoebe's autopsy revealed she had a blood alcohol level of 0.16, three times the legal driving limit. She'd also taken one or two Zolperdom, commonly known as Stillnox. the sleeping tablets increasingly linked to unintentional bad or bizarre behavior. She also had Simbalta and dextro methorfen, a cough suppressant. When she had been found, her pants were down around her ankles. That didn't make a ton of sense that her jeans had actually slid down her legs. If she had gone in feet first, into a narrow shoot,

wouldn't the fabric ride up? So likely the pants came down before the fall, but why? There were no signs of an assault having taken place. As the official next of kin, shortly after, Ant submitted a claim for Phoebe's death benefits. His father, George, the retired judge, signed to support the claim going as far as writing the wrong dates to make it look like their relationship was longer than it actually was. He had them living together six months before they had even met. Pretty strange, right? Aunt was paid $113,000, but After backlash from Phoebe's grieving family, he eventually gave the money to her brothers,

though he refused to give up his position as next of kin. On December 7th, Neil Bone, the managing director of the company that installed the garbage shoot, visited the scene. He mentioned what people were thinking, that it would have been possible for someone of Phoebe's size to fit in the shoot, but she would have had to enter feet first. It didn't take much longer after that. Police felt like they had enough information and officially closed the case, ruling Phoebe's death as non-suspicious and unaliving.

Her family couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense to any of them, especially with so many happy events coming up. Her grandpa's 70th was soon. It was also her dad's birthday dinner that night after her death, and they had plans to get dinner together, something she was excited about. It was just too much good going on in Phoebe's life. and too much to look forward to. And Phoebe's grandfather, Lorne, a retired homicide detective, compiled a list of everything police should have done but didn't.

The CCTV they missed. The digital forensics was a mess too, apparently. I was aghast at the things that have been. I mean, if you walked in there as a policeman, you would certainly be thinking, this is one out of the box, and you wouldn't be thinking, we're going to write this officer. you'd be thinking we're going to look at every corner of this.

When they went to review Phoebe's emails a few days after her death, everything had been erased. Lauren thought this was suspicious. The police, though, they say it was an act of someone trying to erase themselves. Then there were the autopsy inconsistencies. The unexplained blood in the apartment. But police brushed them off, telling him that they were satisfied with how they handled it. It seems to me that there was enough evidence to suggest that something had gone on in the apartment before she went down the shoot. I think perhaps there could have been an accident.

There could have been some sort of confrontation. And, yeah, it might have been a panic situation. I really don't know. Alorn then took it a step further. He gathered detectives and Phoebe's friend, Sarah. and Sarah like Phoebe was tall and slim. They attached a harness to her and tried to simulate what police claimed Phoebe did. To get into the shoot, you had to pull down a heavy spring-loaded door and keep it open

while simultaneously getting your legs in one at a time. Sarah managed to get one leg and the other was hard to do. When she finally got both in, the shoot slammed shut, smacking her into the wall. Then they swapped her out for another friend and got the same type of result. Viv, Phoebe's close friend and her match in height and size, struggles, even though completely sober. What are you finding difficult at this point? Just try to see how can get my body in. With the weighted door to the shoot over a meter off the ground, the opening a mere 36 and a half centimetres,

and nothing to hold onto. It takes a great degree of determination to even sit in it. Both girls had to touch the door, the shoot, the frame everywhere. But remember, Phoebe's fingerprints weren't found anywhere, not one. And these were two sober, fully alert women, and they barely managed it. And Phoebe was drunk, sedated, possibly sleepwalking. After all this, police shrugged and said basically, yeah, it's hard, but not impossible.

I just don't believe that anyone could possibly do it under the influence. If you're a point-16, there's no way you'd be able to handle that balance aspect of it. I just see that as being an amazingly complicated physical feat. Still not satisfied, Phoebe's grandfather went to Neil, the shoot manufacturer. And Neil was pissed off. He said police ignored everything he tried to explain, how the machine worked, what was realistic, and what wasn't. They then built a replica shoot and ran even more tests.

They found Phoebe would have needed to have her hands above her head as she fell, meaning the spring door should have caused injuries to her hands, but there were none. So the whole thing is weird, and then another potential clue surfaced. A witness came forward, and she said on the day of the death, At around 4 p.m., a man got into the elevator of that apartment building and pressed the 12-floor button without using a fom. That means someone on the 12-floor would have had to buzz him up so he had access.

Later, a photo from that moment was circulated, and police interviewed every unit on the 12th floor. And guess what? None of them had buzzed him in. That means Phoebe most likely did. However, that's where the investigation stopped. no follow-up, no ID, but we don't know who this guy was. So, what happened to Phoebe Handjok? For all the theories, all the reports, all the paperwork,

the truth is, we still don't know what occurred on December 2nd of 2010. It feels like we haven't got the truth about what happened, what really happened, and we don't have any justice for Phoebe either. So that's hard. We know the investigation was dismissive. Eric, for example, the property manager, wasn't even properly interviewed until a year after the fact on what he knew.

That's the same guy who told the police the footage was going to get erased if they didn't grab it and was ignored. We also know that it's definitely hard to get into a garbage shoot like that by yourself. And that's one heck of a way to go out. And it's basically impossible not to leave behind fingerprint. And did Phoebe really do it on purpose? And was it a tragic accident caused by sleeping pills and alcohol? Or was it something far more sinister? The answer to all those questions, as I mentioned at the top of this episode,

is something we'll likely never know. So that's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown. I hope you all enjoyed it. Appreciate you all very much for tuning in. It means a lot to us. and please be safe out there in this crazy world and remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories

because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.