The following story contains a discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, someone is available. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
BLUE SUMMIT, Mo. — A local mother who lost her daughter more than a year ago still knows very little about her death.
One agency says she died from suicide, but law enforcement still has her death under investigation.
Bridget Walsh said she knows very little about what happened the day her daughter, Noelle Ishkuntana, died.
"No answers. I'm nowhere closer than the minute we were told that she was gone," Walsh said.
It was Saturday, June 9, 2018. Ishkuntana was 26.
"I don't know how she landed at her boyfriend's house, but 24 hours later was found hanging in his backyard," Walsh said.
That reality plays over and over in Walsh's mind.
The family remembers getting an erratic phone call from Ishkuntana's boyfriend, saying she was dead. They called hospitals and police stations. They finally located Ishkuntana's body at the morgue.
"We buried her and the next day I needed answers," Walsh said.
Walsh said days after she found out Noelle was dead, and after many calls to law enforcement, detectives came to her apartment.
"They came here and told us it was suicide," said Walsh.
They told Walsh that Ishkuntana was found hanging in a tree in the backyard of home in Blue Summit, Missouri, around 8 p.m. that night. Ishkuntana's boyfriend lives on the property.
Ishkuntana struggled with mental health issues and drug addiction for the majority of her 20s, her mother said. However, Walsh said she saw no indication her daughter would end her life.
Left in the dark
More than a year has passed and despite repeated requests, Jackson County won't give Walsh the autopsy report or police reports.
Walsh said it's been a struggle getting a hold of the detective. She said she hadn't heard from him for a year.
"At any point of me trying to get any information [they say], 'Well, it's still under investigation,'" Walsh said.
41 Action News also requested the autopsy report and police report from Jackson County but was told the same thing. The case is still under investigation and under state law, officials aren't required to release anything.
However, a spokesperson for the Jackson County Sheriff's Office confirmed they are not investigating Ishkuntana's death as suspicious. They have it listed as a dead body investigation.
"I don't know their purpose in keeping an open investigation. What is that purpose? Tell me," Walsh said.
Ishkuntana's death certificate says she died by suicide.
Walsh said she's had conversations with the county medical examiner, who told her he did not perform a full autopsy on Ishkuntana's body, but his side of things are wrapped up.
Because her children were raised Muslim, Walsh and Ishkuntana's sisters cleaned and prepared her body for burial at the mosque.
"We saw everything from top to bottom, every part of my daughter," said Walsh.
Walsh said she noticed blood on her daughter's head and leaves in her hair.
She believes a full autopsy would help her fill in the blanks.
Over the last five years, 1,100 suicide cases were forwarded to the medical examiner's office. Only 182 received a full autopsy, 22 received a partial autopsy, and 854 received an external autopsy.
An autopsy is performed when the death is:
- known or suspected to have been caused by apparent criminal violence;
- unexpected and unexplained in an infant or child;
- associated with police action;
- apparently non-natural and in custody of a local, state, or federal institution;
- due to acute workplace injury;
- caused by apparent electrocution;
- by apparent intoxication by alcohol, drugs, or poison, unless a significant interval has passed, and the medical findings and absence of trauma are well documented;
- caused by unwitnessed or suspected drowning;.
Autopsies can also occur when:
- the body is unidentified and the autopsy may aid in identification;
- the body is skeletonized;
- the body is charred;
- the forensic pathologist deems a forensic autopsy is necessary to determine cause or manner of death, or document injuries/disease, or collect evidence;
- the deceased is involved in a motor vehicle incident and an autopsy is necessary to document injuries and/or determine the cause of death.
"How did it really go down?" Walsh wondered.
What happened at the house?
41 Action News went to the home where Ishkuntana's body was found to get answers but no one answered the door.
Reporter Sarah Plake talked with Ishkuntana's boyfriend over the phone. He did not want to go on camera and would not provide his account of what happened.
"Unfortunately, I can remember pretty vividly," said a neighbor, Chris Dahl.
Chris and Vanessa Dahl live next door. They were excited to see Ishkuntana that morning because she'd just gotten out of jail. They said she was in good spirits.
"Everything seems fine until one of the people they had living in the back house over there come over hollering, 'She's hanging in a tree,'" Chris Dahl said.
He ran next door and could tell she was already gone. He said Ishkuntana's toes were barely touching the ground and recalls the rope was strewn up "really crazy" in the tree branches.
He said he had to wake up Ishkuntana's boyfriend, but doesn't know what they were doing before she died.
"It's like it happened yesterday, to us," Vanessa Dahl said. "We liked Noelle."
A bumpy past
Walsh said she wonders if investigators are taking into account an assault that allegedly happened at the house two years prior, when Walsh said Ishkuntana's boyfriend beat her.
"Their relationship was always very bumpy," Walsh said.
According to incident reports, detectives interviewed Ishkuntana at a hospital.
She claimed her boyfriend attacked her. Her face was swollen and she had severe bruising on her head, neck, face, chest, and arms.
The report states Ishkuntana was distraught and feared for her life.
"When we went to court, she wouldn't go inside. She was scared," Walsh recalled.
Prosecutors said they need witness cooperation to move these cases forward, and in this case, there was no video evidence.
Ishkuntana's boyfriend was never charged with a crime.
In limbo
Walsh said she always hoped Ishkuntana, her seventh child, would be able to overcome her addictions and live a productive life.
"She was of value. She was my baby girl. She was. She is," Walsh said.
Walsh is now raising Ishkuntana's young daughter, who often prays to her "Mama Noelle."
They miss Ishkuntana's feisty, free spirit. Walsh said she feels her daughter's presence every day.
"She didn't have much dignity in the last years of her life. She deserves it in her death," Walsh said.
As most mothers would do, Walsh said she will not stop asking questions until she knows what happened on the day her daughter died.
"I don't mean to belittle suicide at all, but it's an answer. I would be able to start my mourning process because I would know. But I'm still stuck at June 9. I'm still stuck," Walsh said.
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If you or someone you know needs help, someone is available. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
