Every day for the last four and a half years, Paul Jones has visited the grave of his son Lachlan and promised him, “I’ll find out the truth about how you died. I’ll get you justice.”
The body of the three-year-old was found in an oxidation pond in the Southland town of Gore in January 2019 and police concluded he accidentally drowned. But the grief-stricken dad refuses to believe that his wee boy, known as Lachie, walked over a kilometre from his house to the second of two ponds and either fell or jumped in the shallow water.
Treasured memories of Lachie.
Courier Paul has been fighting since that terrible night for a thorough investigation into what happened to his only child because he says the evidence just doesn’t stack up. And recently he was finally able to say to his son, on one of his visits to his grave, “Your day is coming, Lachie. We’re going to get the truth.”
That’s because Coroner Alexander Ho has called for an inquest into Lachie’s death, which means the circumstances will be examined in depth. And local police have also announced they will be reviewing their handling of the case.
“I’ve waited four and a half years for this,” says Paul, 52. “That’s longer than Lachie was alive. And I won’t rest until I find out what really happened.”
Paul visits his son’s grave every day.
Lachie – who lived with his mum, Paul’s ex-partner, and two half-siblings – was reported missing on Tuesday January 29, 2019, a scorching hot summer’s night. His mother said in her statement that he ran off from their house around 9pm and she caught up with him outside a friend’s place a few doors down the street. She said she stopped for a brief chat with the friend, during which time Lachie took off again. The friend did not see the small boy, who was wearing a hi-vis vest and a child’s police hat (he idolised the police).
The two women looked for Lachie and were joined by other neighbours. His mum rang the police around 9.30pm and a wider search was mounted. Paul raced to Gore from Invercargill, where he was living with his father after splitting up from Lachie’s mum six months earlier, and joined the search. At 11.15pm, a police dog handler found Lachie’s body in the oxidation pond.
Paul’s world fell apart when he was told his beloved boy was dead. And when he heard where Lachie had been found, the devastated dad says he immediately felt something was very wrong.
“There was no way he could have walked 1.2km to those ponds, especially at that time of night. He had a dirty nappy and bare feet – it was a long way to go. And he was not the sort of kid who would run off.”
To get to where he was found, Lachie would have had to walk down a gravel road, climb a gate, and then trudge around 350m through long grass full of thistles, prickles, sheep poo and midges. Yet there were no scratches or bites on his feet or legs.
“I asked the funeral director if there were any marks on his body and I got a letter from him saying he was in perfect condition apart from a nick on his neck where they put a line in him to try to revive him. It didn’t make any sense.”
Paul and Karen at the pond where Lachie was found, says his son “was not the sort of kid who would run off”.
The fact he had no bumps on his head suggests he didn’t knock himself out falling in, says Paul. The water where he was found was only 29cm deep, so if he fell in, he could easily have stood up.
“And if he wanted to jump in the water, why did he walk all the way to the second pond? Why didn’t he jump in as soon as he got to the first pond? It’s a very long way to the second one. He wouldn’t have walked all the way there, then decided to jump in. That’s ridiculous.”
When Paul learned that the police dog did not pick up Lachie’s scent until it was 40m from where he was found, that raised even more red flags. “He had a pooey nappy that would have rubbed over the gate they said he climbed over. The fact that there was no scent there or along where he was meant to have walked, until 40m away from him… that’s not right.”
Paul believes his son did not drown in the pond but was taken there, already dead. He tried to get the police to look into the possibility of foul play but they would not budge on their conclusion of accidental drowning, even after two investigations. Part of their reasoning was that a teenage girl had reported seeing a small boy running near the corner of the road that leads to the ponds. However, that witness says she saw the child around 8.30pm – half an hour before Lachie’s mum says he ran off.
Paul is convinced it wasn’t Lachie she saw and he’s angry that the police have not investigated further. “The police have not done their job,” he says. “I’m disgusted with the way they have handled everything. We’ve raised so many questions and they haven’t answered anything.”
Paul has thrown himself into doing whatever it takes to find out what really happened, helped by his good friend Karen McGuire, the partner of one of his oldest mates.
He badgered leading investigative journalist Melanie Reid, of Newsroom, until she agreed to look into what happened to Lachie. “I think to start with she said she’d do it to stop me ringing her, but then she realised there was more to it.”
A meticulous three-year investigation by Melanie and her team included sending samples of Lachie’s organ tissues to an independent expert forensic pathologist in the UK. He found there was no water in Lachie’s lungs and “not sufficient pathological evidence” to say he died from drowning.
Melanie’s nine-part podcast, The Boy in the Water, also raised many other points of concern, but the most damning insights came from Karen Smith, a retired US detective who is an expert in crime scene investigation and now works as a consultant.
“We can’t bring him back, but we can bring him justice.”
Karen heard about Lachie from a Kiwi friend and offered to help. She spent more than 400 hours poring over the evidence, including police files that were sent to her by the coroner. In the podcast, she told Melanie that she’d considered every possibility, including the fact that Lachie might have walked to the pond and drowned, and her conclusion had veered more towards the “involvement of a third party”. She believes a more logical finding is that somebody put Lachie in the pond.
Karen also revealed that she sent statements that the police took from a number of people about the day Lachie died to 17 language experts, including people who’ve worked for the FBI and Scotland Yard. She then held a Zoom call with them all during which they analysed the linguistics used. They agreed that among the statements was language that showed someone was not being truthful.
When Paul heard what Karen had to say in the podcast, it was a huge relief. “It’s gut-wrenching, but it’s validation of what we’ve been saying. And it’s all based on evidence.”
Karen sent several reports, including one totalling 150 pages, to the coroner. Paul believes her work and Melanie’s investigation have led to the announcement that there will be an inquest.
“I’m just so grateful. Karen did all of this for free and to have someone like her helping us out is just massive. I’m also so grateful to Mel for everything she has done. The evidence they have found… you can’t argue with that.”
The coroner’s office has said that among the issues that will be looked at are what the circumstances were that led to Lachie being found in the pond that night, and whether the evidence “establishes or excludes the involvement of other individuals in his death”.
As part of the inquest, Alexander intends to visit the oxidation pond in January, around the same time of year that Lachie died. Paul wants to hire a lawyer to voice his concerns at the inquest and is raising money by selling a line of clothing bearing the words #justice4lachie.
Family friend Karen is helping Paul uncover the truth. “Lachie would be proud of him.”
Trying to get to the truth about what happened to Lachie has exhausted Paul. But he won’t stop until he gets answers for the son he adored.
“He was a terrific kid,” says Paul, smiling for the first time as he remembers his boy. “He was very well-mannered, very obliging and funny. And he was intelligent. He used to come on the courier run
with me sometimes and he learned how to use the scanner. He picked things up really quickly. He knew right from wrong and he was just a good kid.”
Karen McGuire, who has supported Paul every step of the way, thinks people have underestimated her friend’s love for his son. “He will never give up. His strength is phenomenal. I don’t know how he does it. I think Lachie would be so proud of him.”
“I can’t give up,” says Paul. “I’ve got nothing to lose – I have lost everything already. I’m still Lachie’s dad and I’m going to stick up for him – the way my dad always has for me. I’m his voice. We can’t bring him back, but we can bring him justice.”
For more, visit justiceforlachie.co.nz
