Thief ’s fatal plunge after $50k raid may remain a mystery
A man whose skeletal remains washed up on a beach days after he stole $50,000 from The Warehouse had been depressed, was likely high on methamphetamine and thought he was being chased by a police drone.
But Lewis Roberston was also a competent swimmer who liked to have a dip, which means the reason he ended up in the sea in the middle of the night on Boxing Day 2021 may remain a mystery.
The 37-year-old’s death was part of a saga that a lawyer said read like a movie script, involving a security guard divulging safe codes and a hunt for cash on a North Canterbury beach.
New details about the case are revealed in a coroner’s report released to Stuff, and made public yesterday.
Robertson, a father of two, broke into The Warehouse in Richmond, near Nelson, on Christmas Eve 2021, after Jennifer Valk, a woman he’d met recently through his cousin, gave him the code to a safe at the business, where she worked as a security guard.
After the burglary, he used some of the $50,000 he stole to buy a Subaru sedan and travelled to Christchurch. No-one spoke to him after 10.30pm on Christmas Day but CCTV footage showed he was in Amberley shortly after midnight on December 26.
Later that morning, walkers on Amberley Beach found about $10,000 on the sand and handed it in to police, who linked it to the burglary at The Warehouse. Other cash was found blowing around on Leithfield Beach, several kilometres south, but was pocketed by members of the public.
On January 6, a woman walking her dog at the northern end of Leithfield Beach came upon partial human skeletal remains. More body parts washed ashore in the days that followed.
Investigators concluded, with the help of forensic testing, that the remains were Robertson’s. Near the high tide mark at Amberley Beach, police found shoes the same as ones he was seen wearing in CCTV footage. His Subaru was found in a nearby car park. But establishing how Robertson died proved difficult.
The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, Dr David Taylor, said there was no evidence of fractures or trauma to Robertson’s ribs, vertebrae or skull. Due to the state of his remains, it was not possible to do toxicology tests. Taylor said drowning was a possible cause of death but he couldn’t be sure. Asked why the body had broken up and decomposed quickly, he said it was “quite normal” for bodies in the water off the South Island’s east coast to be stripped in a very short time by lice and associated creatures.
In their search for answers, police turned to Robertson’s background, which revealed he’d lived a complex life, filled with drug and alcohol abuse, and regular talk of suicide.
The coroner’s report says he had largely lived between Levin, where he had an ex-partner and a 10-year-old child, and Hawke’s Bay.
In 2016, Robertson met German woman Rebecca Merle. They married and had a daughter the following year. However, Merle was deported to her homeland days after the baby was born. Robertson was desperate to move to Germany but could not afford to.
Merle told police that Robertson turned to burglary to raise money, which resulted in him being jailed in September 2019. She said he would constantly talk about ending his life when he was struggling, but she didn’t think he would go through with it.
By late 2021, Robertson was still talking about suicide, and told people he had cancer. He also said he was being pursued by gang members who wanted to kill him, but was vague on details.
On December 14, Robertson travelled to see his father in Tauranga, and seemed “frazzled and tired”. He planned to head to Dunedin where he had friends. His father bought him a bus ticket to Wellington and a flight from there to Dunedin. Two days later, the trip south hit a snag when he apparently couldn’t get on a plane because he didn’t have a photo ID.
On December 17, Robertson’s cousin Douglas Wati invited him to stay with him and Valk, his partner, in Nelson. Wati, according to the coroner’s report, told police that Robertson was behaving uncharacteristically, “going on about being chased and shooting at the pigs”.
One night, Robertson, Valk and Wati discussed burgling The Warehouse.
After the break-in, Wati drove Robertson to Blenheim. Robertson was “all over the place… amping and really erratic”, and talked of being followed by police and drones, Wati said.
In Blenheim, Robertson paid about $4500 for the Subaru, which had been listed for sale on Facebook, using his former flatmate’s name.
Robertson arrived in Christchurch during the afternoon and checked into a motel under his assumed identity.
Over the next 24 hours, he liaised with a sex worker and took methamphetamine. The pair ventured to New Brighton, where Robertson went for a swim. He seemed to be a strong swimmer, the woman said. He left her home about 4pm on Christmas Day.
Valk reported speaking to Robertson on Christmas Day and that he sounded stressed out and paranoid and “fried on drugs”. He said police were following him and had drones out. She ended the call as he wasn’t making any sense.
CCTV footage showed Robertson alone later that evening.
Merle said she spoke to him from Germany about 10pm NZ time. She thought he was high on drugs. Shortly after, he sent her a text saying “Becci they found me”. She never heard from him again.
At 12.05am on December 26, CCTV captured Robertson driving his Subaru south through Amberley. It was the last time he was seen alive.
Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame’s report says there was no evidence to support the suggestion Robertson had cancer, or the rumour he was in trouble with gang members. Police said they were satisfied Robertson’s death wasn’t suspicious, something the coroner accepted, and it was highly unlikely he died from natural causes, or illness.