The second week of Coroner Alexander Ho’s inquest into the 2019 death of Lachie Jones, who was found in an oxidation pond 1.2km from where he was last seen, heard from neighbours and the girlfriend of Lachie’s half-brother.
Sequoia Barrow, Cameron Scott’s girlfriend at the time, gave evidence today about joining the search for Lachie.
Ms Barrow said she could not remember what she had done that day up until she got a call from her partner informing her the boy was missing.
The witness said she could not remember if she had been to Lachie’s house earlier that day or if she smoked cannabis with her boyfriend that night.
Max Simpkins, counsel for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, questioned how genuine her lack of memory was.
“Is that your default when things get tough for you Ms Barrow?” Mr Simpkins asked.
The court heard it was three years after Lachie’s death before Ms Barrow made a statement to police.
Ms Barrow was at the family’s home and described Lachie’s mother Michelle Officer as “hysterical” when she found out her son was dead.
“It was pretty horrific,” the witness said.
The child was wearing a high-vis vest and a police hat on the night he went missing and Ms Barrow told the court he loved his costume so much, often he would not want to take it off.
“Sometimes he tried to go to bed in his police uniform,” she said.
The inquest also heard from neighbours Lorraine Marston and her husband who explained Ms Officer had come to their door and asked if they would search their property for her son.
“She was distraught, absolutely beside herself like, you could hardly tell what she was saying,” Ms Marston said.
“There was no way in hell that somebody could fake that,” Mr Marston said.
'She just wailed'
Kimberley Marshall was with Lachie’s mother Michelle Officer when she found out the boy had been found dead.
"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," Ms Marshall said before breaking down in tears.
Earlier that night, Ms Marshall said she had looked for the toddler around the oxidation ponds - where he was ultimately found - three times.
The first search she had done barefoot and counsel assisting the coroner Simon Mount KC asked her if it had caused her any pain.
Mr Mount explained Lachie was found without shoes on and people have questioned whether the boy would walk over a kilometre on uncomfortable surfaces.
Ms 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.
She also jumped the fence into the oxidation pond area, which she said was easy for her to do.
"It was like a ladder really, because there were gaps," she said.
Ms Marshall believed Lachie could have got into the area where the ponds were, which was why she searched for him there.
She explained there were "heaps" of ducks in the area.
The court has heard from multiple witnesses that Lachie liked to chase ducks.
"If you didn't know it was a sewage pond, it was actually quite a nice place," Ms Marshall said.
She said after her search, Lachie’s father Paul Jones had arrived at Ms Officer’s house and the situation became "pretty heated".
"There was a lot of yelling and swearing," the witness explained.
When Mr Mount put to her that she had been corroborating with Ms Officer, the witness adamantly denied it.
"I'm not even answering that because it’s ridiculous and offensive," Ms Marshall said.
The witness said she had checked on Ms Officer following Lachie’s death, but they did not discuss what happened.
Ms Marshall’s son Marshall Clearwater gave evidence that he briefly saw Lachie run past his mother’s house on the night he went missing.
"It was a bit of a snippet, [I] just saw him run past pretty quickly," Mr Clearwater said.
He said he saw the boy wearing a yellow vest and bare feet, but his friend Maxine Cartwright, who was with him at the time, gave evidence that she saw the boy wearing shoes with white soles.
Mr Clearwater later joined the search for Lachie.
The inquest will continue tomorrow.
