Inquest into toddler death
A month before what would have been his ninth birthday, an inquest into the death of Lachie Jones is starting in the Invercargill District Court today.
Lachie was 3 years old when his body was found by a police dog handler late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face-up in a council oxidation pond near his home.
For his father, Paul Jones, it has taken five-and-a-half years of police investigations, private investigators, lawyers, and thousands of dollars to get to this point.
“I’m proud to be starting this process now for Lachie. I need to find out the truth of how he died,’’ Jones said.
The inquest would determine whether a pathologist who carried out a post-mortem was correct to conclude that Lachie died from drowning, the circumstances that led to him being found in the pond, whether other individuals were involved in his death, and whether the circumstances of his death included neglect.
On the night Lachie’s body was found, police concluded that he had walked from his mother’s home on Salford St in Gore to the ponds.
She said Lachie went missing from home just after 9pm, and went missing a second time at her friend and neighbour Debbie Thurston’s house minutes later.
Lachie’s body was found in the southern waste water pond at 11.15pm.
He loved playing at being a police officer and was wearing his hi-vis vest at the time. His favourite toy police hat was found floating next to him.
Police ruled the death was an accidental drowning, but Jones had always maintained that was not the case because:
■ A Gore funeral director said there were no marks on Lachie’s body, despite police assuming he had walked 1.2km from his mother’s home through scrubby land with bare feet.
■ The dog handler who found Lachie’s body said in a statement the dog was unable to track Lachie until he was close to the body.
■ He was found floating face-up, and his body was cold and blue.
■ A paramedic was unable to obtain a body temperature from Lachie in the back of an ambulance.
■ The autopsy report did not mention whether water from the ponds was found in his lungs.
In 2023, an independent expert forensic pathologist in the United Kingdom, Dr Alexander Kolar, said there was not sufficient pathological evidence to say Lachie died from drowning, after reviewing his organ tissues.
In August 2023 police said they “missed some steps’’ in the early stages of an investigation into the death.
While they would not respond to questions outlining what those steps were, Stuff understood there was no timeline established, and no detailed scene examination at the ponds or at either of the houses. Witness interviews were delayed, sometimes by more than a month; there were conflicting witness statements, and a lack of cellphone data.
Lachie’s mother was granted name suppression, which remained in place, when the council pleaded guilty to charges bought by WorkSafe in March 2023.
Coroner Ho, who would conduct the inquest, had ordered that she and her two sons were not to be photographed while in the courtroom. The coroner had also ordered the media was not to publish the evidence given by any witness until they had finished giving their evidence.
The first session of the inquest would run for three weeks, with evidence being given by individuals who had factual evidence to give about the case, including Lachie’s family and those who were present or in the vicinity when he disappeared and after his body was found.
A second session would be held in August with expert witnesses giving evidence.