Neighbour recalls searching waste water ponds three times
A woman who searched for Lachie Jones on the night he died says she visited the council’s waste water ponds, where the toddler was found dead, three times that night.
Kimberley Marshall was the first witness to be called on week two of the inquest into three-year-old Lachie’s death.
Lachie was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council oxidation pond near his home.
Marshall told the court she was sitting outside her house having a cigarette when another neighbour, Debbie Thurston, asked her if she had seen the toddler.
Her son overheard and said he had seen a child run past her property on Salford St.
Marshall said she visited the waste water ponds three times that night looking for the toddler.
The first time, she went with Lachie’s mother, Michelle Officer.
Marshall said one of them said ‘’he can’t have come this far’’ but could not recall who made the comment. Under questioning later, Marshall said she made the statement in the belief that her son had just seen the child and Lachie would not have had enough time to get to the ponds.
Marshall had run to the ponds barefoot. Counsel assisting the coroner Simon Mount KC asked her if it had caused her any pain.
Mount explained Lachie was found in the ponds without shoes, and people have questioned whether the boy would walk that far barefoot.
Marshall said while the gravel did hurt her feet, it was not something she was focused on and was not aware of any damage to her feet after the trip. On her third visit, she ran around northern pond twice with a torch during her search, but said she was not aware there was a second pond.
After checking on her own children, Marshall went to Officer’s house. She became emotional when talking about Officer being told of her son’s death by police.
“When she was told that he was dead, her legs gave [out] and she had to be held up and she just wailed. It was a cry I’d never heard before,’’ Marshall said.
Police lawyer Robin Bates put it to Marshall that it had been suggested by Lachie’s father Paul Jones that she had discussed the case with Lachie’s mother, she was lying and had corroborated to help Officer out.
“I’m not even answering that because its ridiculous. It’s actually offensive,’’ Marshall said.
“I have not, I haven’t discussed what happened to anyone.’’
Marshall said she had checked on Officer after the death, but they had not discussed what happened.
Her son, Marshall Clearwater, who was 14 on the night Lachie died, also gave evidence at the inquest. He had told police that he saw a small boy run past the house who was wearing a high vis vest. He did not know at the time whether it was Lachie.
Clearwater said he and his friend Maxine Cartwright, who had previously given evidence at the inquest, went to the end of the driveway.
He said he saw a boy turning the corner, heading down Grasslands Rd.
Clearwater said the child was barefoot and was wearing a high vis vest, but after questioning from Mount he said he was ‘‘pretty sure’’ the boy was wearing a high vis vest.