Another year has passed since the tragic death of preschooler Lachlan Jones in a Southland council oxidation pond. His father, Paul Jones, says he’s still no closer to knowing how his young son died.
Paul Jones had just gone to bed at his home in Invercargill on January 29, 2019, when he got a call to say his son was missing.
Lachlan, also known as Lachie, was a bright-eyed three-and-a-half-year-old boy who enjoyed watching Blippi and PJ Masks on YouTube and dressing up like a police officer.
Jones jumped in his van and sped all the way to Gore, taking just half an hour to drive the 50 minute trip to where Lachie lived with his mum and older stepbrothers.
At 11.15pm that hot summer’s night the little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a council oxidation pond by a police dog and its handler. His little replica police hat sat on the bank nearby.
Police determined his death an accident and closed the case, concluding Lachie had walked more than a kilometre from his mother’s house in his hi-viz vest, climbed over a fence and traipsed across long prickly grass to the end of the second of two large ponds before falling in and drowning.
Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of Lachlan’s death, and while Jones remains unconvinced his son’s death was accidental, he says he is no closer to knowing the truth, despite a new investigation into the case.
“My wee boy idolised the police in this country. He knew that they caught the “bad people” and kept us all safe. It saddens me that the very people Lachlan looked up to were the same people that have not only let him down while he was alive, but have continued to let him down after his death,” said Jones.
Reinvestigation closed
In October 2020, days after an in-depth Newsroom investigation into Lachie’s death was published, police reopened the case and brought in officers from another district to conduct new inquiries.
More than a year later, in November 2021 police closed their reinvestigation, releasing a short statement that said the matter had concluded and been referred back to the coroner.
Jones said police have still not addressed any of the concerns raised over how the original police investigation was conducted, nor how his boy died.
At issue in the original investigation were concerns that police did not secure the scene, nor conduct a full scene examination; that there were inconsistencies in witness statements, including contradictory times given for sightings of Lachie that were not followed up; and that key witnesses were also not interviewed until more than a month later.
Questions were also raised over the length of time police took to request text messaging data from telcos so that it was too late and no longer available, and that the cellphone location data they did collect showed inconsistencies about where key witnesses said they were.
Most worrying of all for Jones was that no marks were found on Lachlan’s feet, despite a supposed walk of 1.2 km over rough terrain, a gate and cutty grass with thistles.
Paul Jones and his longtime supporter and friend, Karen McGuire, told Newsroom they had a meeting with Southern District Investigations Detective Inspector Stu Harvey before Christmas, who told them there was "insufficient evidence on the facts that we have at this time in regards to any criminal culpability of any person in regards to Lachlan's death".
Jones said he couldn’t believe it took a year to reach that conclusion, and is amazed they are still no closer to having any answers.
“In my view the re-investigation has been designed to protect the police’s own inadequate first investigation, and hasn’t progressed in any way to finding out the truth in what happened to Lachlan,” Jones told Newsroom.
McGuire agrees and said she questions the adequacy of the re-investigation.
“I was so confident they were going to find so many flaws, and tell us ‘we’ve had a breakthrough’. But no. We couldn’t get any answers to our questions. It feels like they’re doing everything to protect their original decision, and not to investigate the case.”
But Jones and McGuire won’t know exactly what the re-investigation covered until they get a copy of the file - and that won’t happen until the police pass the file to the coroner.
It has now been almost three months since police released their report and spoke to Jones and McGuire about the closure of the case and referral to the coroner.
When Newsroom approached Harvey for more information, he wrote he was “in the process of forwarding the matter to the coroner”.
Jones said he is now going to push for a full coronial inquiry into Lachie’s death.
Council going to court
In another twist, the Gore District Council have pleaded not guilty to charges laid against them by WorkSafe.
The council has been charged under three sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to take all reasonable precautions to ensure the site was safe.
Newsroom understands the council is not convinced Lachie’s death was accidental and the cornerstone of the their decision to plead not guilty is a belief the police investigation was inadequate.
It is thought that this means the Gore District Council does not believe Lachlan Jones walked out to the ponds on his own.
An eight-day trial has been set down, and the outcome will have implications for councils across the country. WorkSafe said it was unable to comment while the matter was before the courts.
But for Jones, Saturday is all about remembering his son. He will honour Lachie by bringing a gift to his grave, a place he still visits every day.
And McGuire told Newsroom they won’t be giving up anytime soon.
“The police underestimate Paul’s love for his son, because this is a man who will never rest until the truth comes out. This would have sent anybody over the edge, but it’s his love for Lachie that keeps him going. He’ll never give up, not until he gets the truth.”
