MARQUETTE – Though it had previously been deemed suspicious, the death of former Marquette resident Shawn Dollar last year is now believed by the Marquette City Police Department to be “likely due to an accidental fall.”

Det. Capt. Gordon Warchock released a statement Wednesday that said, in part, “After a year of following up leads, interviewing numerous parties, and working with other agencies, the Marquette police have found no evidence of a criminal act that caused the death of Shawn Dollar.”

Warchock said the medical examiner’s investigation showed Dollar died from head trauma, which was “consistent with our investigation in that injury to Shawn Dollar was most likely due to an accidental fall.”

Dollar, 34, was found Sept. 14, 2012, on the bottom floor of an empty building at 231 W. Washington St., six days after he was last seen and following a search organized earlier that day by Dollar’s mother, Jackie Boxer.

It’s a day she will never forget. After spending hours searching the city for her son, Boxer said she was told by a city police officer that Dollar had been found inside the vacant building, feet from where the search began.

“I screamed, I hollered. I wanted to see him,” Boxer said. “I didn’t believe it was him. As a mother, to lose a child and my firstborn. He was my little miracle.”

Though “suspicious,” Dollar’s death was never classified as a homicide by police.

The abandoned building where Dollar’s body was found was most recently home to the 231 House of Muses, an alternative music venue. A fire in January 2007 burned out the interior of the building, which has been vacant since.

In the 15 months since Dollar’s death, police have said they interviewed individuals who were in the area the night of Sept. 8, as well as some of Dollar’s acquaintances who weren’t with him on that night, which was the last day he was seen alive.

And though the police have said Dollar likely died due to an accidental fall, Dollar’s family isn’t so sure, believing something more sinister is the cause.

Boxer said she’s still left with a lot of questions about her son’s final moments. Especially problematic for her is the environment in which Dollar was found. Boxer said she wonders why would a man who she described as extremely cleanly – a man who hated to even have his hands dirty – willingly enter an abandoned building filled with pigeon droppings and the dust and dirt that come with years of vacancy?

“How did he get in that building?” Boxer said. “That’s one of my biggest questions. … I may have to take it to my own grave and not know until I get to heaven, how he got in there.”

Dollar’s paternal aunt Christine Schneider said she grapples with those same questions, spending the last year and a half waking up and going to bed wondering what happened to her nephew.

“We’d love to go on with our lives – and we’re doing a lot better – but if we had answers, we could move a lot farther, and I don’t know if there’s such a thing, ever, as closure. I don’t know that. Some people say yes, some people say no, but as a family, I know my brother drives to the cemetery every day,” Schneider said, her voice catching as tears welled in her eyes. “He’ll say, ‘Let’s go say hi to our buddy, Shawn.'”

Both women said they’ve come a long way since first learning of Dollar’s death, but are still haunted by what could have been.

“There’s a lot of ‘what ifs,'” Boxer said. “What if I’d have called earlier … what if I’d have gotten to him sooner. What if I’d have looked for him when I didn’t hear from him Sunday, after the Bears game, on Monday, or Tuesday when he had a doctor appointment. Why didn’t I? What if? You could drive yourself crazy with that.”

Schneider said thoughts of her nephew are never far from her mind, but she’s learning how to cope with the sudden loss.

“When we look back to where we were at this point, oh my gosh we’ve made so much progress. And I don’t know how Jackie does it, because I’m the aunt and I have a hard time,” Schneider said, adding the lingering questions surrounding the circumstances of her nephew’s death make moving on that much harder. “It’s like a big puzzle and a big piece is missing. We have gone over every scenario we could possibly think of.”

But the one scenario that both women said doesn’t make sense to them is that this was an accident.

“The real puzzle I have is somebody has got to know something,” Boxer said. “Shawn was so well-known and loved in the community, so well-loved and liked and he was never by himself. He could walk in a room and light it up in a second. … It’s just like a nightmare that will never end.”

For the family, memories of Dollar are brought on by seemingly innocuous things: the weather, a song on the radio.

“It’s always something,” Schneider said. “I don’t care if it’s a nice, sunny day and he would have been at the beach, a holiday, a birthday, he was born on Mother’s Day. There’s always something there to remind you.”

What Dollar’s family can cling to are the memories they have of a man described by his mother and aunt as incredibly social, a sports fanatic who cheered on the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings as well as the Chicago Bears, and someone who was always ready to lend a helping hand.

Boxer said Christmas and July 4th were Dollar’s favorite times of year because everyone would return to the area to visit family and he’d have the chance to once again say hello to old friends, helping keep those friends in touch with each other.

“His friends say he was the glue that held everyone together,” Boxer said.

She said she hoped those who knew him would take some time this holiday season to pause and reflect on a joyous moment shared with Shawn.

Currently, the family is organizing a reward to be offered to anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons involved in the death of Shawn Dollar.

Donations can be made at the Marquette Community Federal Credit Union, where an account, the “Shawn Dollar Reward Fund,” has been set up.

City police have said the investigation will remain open.

Anyone with information on Dollar’s death is asked to contact police at 228-0400.

Jackie Stark can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242.