An Invercargill school staff member who was one of the last people to speak to missing boy Mike Zhao-Beckenridge described him as “out of breath and panicky” the day he disappeared.
“He just seemed a bit out of sorts and a bit worried and concerned,” the staff member told the Coroner’s court this afternoon.
Swedish-born helicopter pilot John Beckenridge broke a court order and picked up his 11-year-old stepson from his Invercargill school on March 13 in 2015.
A week after the pair’s disappearance, Beckenridge’s dark-blue 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off an almost 90-metre cliff near Curio Bay in the Catlins, but when police recovered the vehicle there were no sign of any bodies. The pair have been missing ever since.
Police have spent thousands of hours investigating the case but have had no success in finding out what happened. Mike would now be aged 18.
However, Mike’s mother Fiona Lu is convinced her son is still alive and that her former partner staged the pair’s death after she moved her son from Beckenridge’s Queenstown home to Invercargill with her new partner.
Now, Coroner Marcus Elliot is looking into the case at the Christchurch District Court to consider whether it is likely the pair are dead.
The hearing, which began on Monday, was expected to take two weeks and will hear evidence from witnesses, including someone who believes she spotted the pair overseas four months after their disappearance.
On Tuesday afternoon, the court heard evidence from a staff member at Mike’s school, who cannot be identified.
She told the court the boy had arrived at school on March 13, but he was pulled out of his music class in the morning to take his iPad from him, as requested by his mother’s partner Peter Russell.
The staff member said Mike took an “unusually” long time to deliver the iPad to her office and was seen coming in from the front of the school, near the public road, rather than from the direction of his classroom. She described the boy as “panicky” and breathing heavily as if he had been running.
She took the iPad from Mike and sent him back to his music class, instructing him to use a staff door, leading to an external door to go directly through the school rather than having to walk around the school grounds. She said Mike was very reluctant to go this way.
CCTV footage showed Mike going through the first door, but he wasn’t seen exiting the second door.
Mike turned up at his music class but sometime between lunch and the end of the school day, he disappeared.
The woman described Mike as a good student with “excellent attendance” but noted he had told others he wasn’t going to be at the school for very long, insisting he would return to Queenstown.
“He always said he was going back to live with his dad in Queenstown.”
Later that afternoon, when there was still no sign of Mike, police were called, launching a massive search dubbed Operation Mike.
The court also heard that staff at Mike’s previous school said he was very close with Breckenridge and would “likely be traumatised” after leaving him.
Heartbreaking texts sent from Mike to his mother before his disappearance read: “You do not deserve to be my mum. You certainly do not deserve my love.”
As police continued their search, they were alerted to a reported sighting of the pair on March 19 at a campsite off Weir Rd on the Haldane Estuary roughly 14km from the cliff Beckenridge’s vehicle went off.
Police detective Aaron Dempsey conducted a scene examination of the tent set up at the campsite with various items such as a generator, two empty one-litre fuel containers, an air mattress and a cooking device, noting that the tent was “quite well kept”.
Swab testing and further examinations revealed a plaster with Mike’s fingerprints on it as well as boot prints of a shoe belonging to Beckenridge, which would later wash ashore in the Curio Bay area.
Dempsey also said it appeared to him that the tent was erected out of sight from other campers and there was a small firepit, but it was hard to tell when it had been lit.
As police continued their search members of the public joined in, something Dempsey said was very helpful.
Boy desperate to be with stepdad, court told
The missing boy's desperate pleas to see stepfather John Beckenridge led him to calling police, claiming that his mother had assaulted him, the court was told earlier on Tuesday.
Mike also repeatedly sent him emails begging him to answer, even threatening he would harm himself if he couldn’t be with him.
On Monday, heartbreaking texts from Mike to his mother before his disappearance were read to the court: “You do not deserve to be my mum. You certainly do not deserve my love.”
Today, the court heard from Constable Dave McLardy, who attended the call from Mike as well as a call from Beckenridge, who was concerned for his stepson’s safety.
McLardy spoke to Mike, describing him as a “stubborn child”, but left the home feeling satisfied with Mike’s wellbeing.
“He was dead set on getting what he wanted, he wouldn’t listen to what anyone was trying to tell him."
Several days later, McLardy received a call from Beckenridge, who had received multiple emails from Mike, claiming he would harm himself.
Beckenridge was concerned for his stepson’s safety and wanted the officer to do a welfare check.
The emails reveal Mike begging Beckenridge to come get him and his frustration toward his mother for not letting him see his stepfather, claiming he hated her and talked about suicide.
Included in the tranche of disturbing emails revealed in today’s hearing was at least one where Mike threatened self-harm.
“Help me dad get out of here please,” he wrote in one email.
“I love u and I don’t want to life my life like this [sic].
"Please I’m begging I cri for u everyday,” he wrote in others.
As well as professing his love for his stepfather he also said: “Find me dad and u said we could do that thing.”
In another exchange he said: "I miss u so much and I love u can u please come here and we start kill?”
On Monday Lisa Preston, KC, assisting the Coroner, outlined the case.
Beckenridge met Mike’s mother Lu, who is from China, in 2006. Lu’s parents were raising Mike at the time.
The pair later moved with Mike to New Zealand, where they were based in Queenstown. Their relationship broke down in 2014. Shortly after that, Lu moved to Invercargill.
In February 2015, the Queenstown Family Court made an order that Lu had care of Mike.
On March 13 of that year Beckenridge dropped off a box of documents and a letter for his Queenstown-based lawyer, asking him to contact his friend in relation to his trust fund and estate.
The letter read: “It will now be up to him how to do with what is left of my ‘belongings’! Thanks for your assistance over the years. Very helpfull!” (sic).
That same day, Beckenridge took Mike from his school sometime between a pre-lunch roll call and the end of the day and drove them to the southern Catlins area.
Police were alerted and a search party was launched, with concerns raised about the risk of a murder-suicide. Border alerts were put in place, including for Beckenridge’s aliases Knut Goran Roland Lundh (his birth name), John Robert Lundh and John Bradford.
The next day Beckenridge’s friends began receiving “concerning” texts from him, stating the “Gestapo” was after him and Mike, and they would soon be getting on the “Midnight Express” for departure.
Heartbreaking messages to Lu from Mike expressed his frustration at her not listening to him, stating: “You do not deserve to be my mum or to be called Fiona and you certainly do not deserve my love. From Mike.”
Beckenridge also sent a message to Lu, thanking her for being his wife while also accusing her of lying and deceiving.
On March 22, items belonging to the Beckenridges, such as clothes and car parts, washed ashore in the Curio Bay area. Soon after Beckenridge’s vehicle was found at the bottom of the cliff in the water.
Police have found no evidence to date of a planned escape past the Catlins nor evidence the Beckenridges had left the Catlins.
However, to date, police have had 60 suspected sightings of the Beckenridges or their vehicle, some of which have been deemed unlikely or eliminated.
Information about possible sightings continues to be reported from people in New Zealand and from Kiwis who say they have had an encounter whilst on holiday overseas.
The hearing before Coroner Elliot continues.
- By Emily Moorhouse
Open Justice multimedia journalist, Christchurch
SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO (available 24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: 0800 376 633
• What's Up: 0800 942 8787 (11am to11pm)
• Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7)
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• Helpline: 1737
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
