A newly released police report indicates that a 26-year-old woman was trying to access the back deck of a Bank Street bar from a nearby fire escape when she accidentally fell to her death last September.

The death of Emily Eshenfelder led to an inspection and the condemnation of the aging fire escape behind the former Lost Souls Tattoo at 26 Bank St.

Both the fire escape and the back deck at the former Old Roadhouse bar at 36 Bank St. are the subject of potential civil suit filed by the estate of Emily Eshenfelder. The bar has since closed.

The Reardon Law Firm filed the notice of intent to sue the city on Feb. 25, arguing that city employees failed to condemn the rear fire escape and back deck, to inspect it or “to erect appropriate barriers, warning signs, cones, barricades or other such equipment to warn and protect the public from the hazards of said conditions.”

While there is no indication the condition of the fire escape played a role in Eshenfelder’s death, details of the police investigation suggest she was on the fire escape and attempting to cross a 6-foot void to the bar’s deck when she fell.

Eshenfelder, manager of the family-owned Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock, spent the night of Sept. 3, 2015, celebrating and drinking with friends at several Bank Street bars, the police investigation shows.

By early morning on Sept. 4, recognizing she was in no condition to drive, she had texted a friend asking for a ride home.

But by the time her friend had left her job at the former Old Roadhouse bar, she had inexplicably lost contact with Eshenfelder.

Eshenfelder was found the next morning on the pavement below the back deck of the Old Roadhouse. The fall to the pavement below appeared to have killed her instantly.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death an accident and toxicology reports showed she had a blood alcohol concentration of .307.

Police said the evidence at the scene suggested that Eshenfelder “might have been attempting to move from the end of the fire escape, along an angle iron and door entry, to the Old Road House deck.”

Police found foam used to seal cracks in the outer brick wall and around a sealed off door on Eshenfelder’s pants and sweatshirt.

They also noted streaks on the sealed-off door which “appeared to be a recent interruption or brushing of the oxidation on the paint on the door.”

The door in question is located in the void space between the fire escape and deck and does not have a platform below it.

The fire escape has since been condemned and access to its stairs are now limited by the erection of a wooden fence.

Police interviewed numerous witnesses as part of its investigation into Eshenfelder’s death and found it might not have been the first time someone tried to access the deck of the bar, which does not have stairs of its own.

Police spoke with Dawn Harkness, who owns a Segway tour business located underneath the deck of the Roadhouse.

Harkness told police she had once seen a man attempting to jump from the fire escape to the deck, but after leaning out had changed his mind.

“She stated that people often try to climb up on to the deck. She stated she put the planters in with the climbing flowers in an effort to dissuade people from doing so,” the police report said.

On Sept. 8, Detective Sgt. Lawrence Keating emailed New London Building Official Kirk Kripas to inform him that the fire escape was in dire need of an inspection.

“The metal is rusting through, the stairs and platform shake when you are standing on them, the building mortar is crumbling, so the support bolts are loose and falling out, the end of the platform has pieces of wood tied to the metal railing and there are rear doors that are exposed from the outside that do not have a fire escape underneath them,” Keating wrote.

He also noted dry rot underneath the deck at the Old Roadhouse.

Records show Kripas responded that same day, condemning the fire escape.

He told property owner Tom Crosby of Salem to “discontinue its use immediately.”

He also ordered a structural analysis of the back deck at the bar.

In addition to limiting access to the fire escape stairs, a wooden fence is now situated at the end of the fire escape facing the bar’s deck.

Police said Eshenfelder’s friend, Amanda Ducheneau, had intended to drive Eshenfelder home after she finished her shift at the Old Roadhouse.

She had asked Eshenfelder to meet her at a side door located in an alley.

Eshenfelder had visited The Exchange, Hot Rod's and was with friends at the O’Neill’s Brass Rail until about 12:30 a.m. when she texted Ducheneau, the police reports said.

Police examined the texts between the two friends.

“I can’t drive my car. Please lol,” Eshenfelder wrote at about 12:32 a.m.

“Lol, you know I got you hahaha,” Ducheneau wrote back.

Ducheneau later warned Eshenfelder not to go to the back of the bar.

At 1:05 a.m. Ducheaneau texted, “Hey when you get kicked out come over to the roadhouse, I’ve got more to clean. But go to the stairs in the alley by my car and knock and I’ll let ya in there. Can’t have cops seeing you come in the front.”

“OK I’ll go to back. Still sipping at the brass rail deck,” Eshenfelder wrote back. “Thank you.”

At 1:08 a.m. and 1:09 a.m., Ducheneau reminded Eshenfelder that there was no entrance at the back of the bar.

Ducheneau texted Eshenfelder at 1:37 a.m. to let her know she was almost done. She called twice but did not hear from Eshenfelder.

At 2 a.m. Ducheneau drove to the rear of O'Neill's Brass Rail, called out for Eshenfelder, but did not find her. Ducheneau found out the next day about Eshenfelder’s death.

Attorneys representing the city and Eshenfelder’s estate were not immediately available to comment.

Editor's note: Comments were disabled due to repeated violations of our commenting policy against personal attacks.