Lachie Jones inquest: Mother denies ‘small puff’ of cannabis during search

Thursday, 2 May 2024

A key witness in the Lachie Jones inquest claims the toddler’s mother smoked cannabis with her while the search went on for the missing boy, who was later found dead.

However, the mother, Michelle Officer, has denied the claims and said the witness “got mixed up” and they could be recalling what ”might have happened on another night”.

Officer was speaking at an inquest that started this week in Invercargill into the death of the 3-year-old who was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council oxidation pond near his home.

During cross-examination late on Tuesday afternoon from Simon Mount, KC, who was counsel assisting Coroner Alexander Ho, Officer was asked to read a police job sheet.

Mount said it was created on April 9 this year, when Officer’s neighbour, Debbie Thurston, contacted police.

Officer alleged she and Lachie visited Thurston’s house on the night of his death.

She paused after reading the job sheet, and said: “I don’t remember that at all. I 100% don’t agree with that at all.”

Mount told the hearing that the job sheet said that on the night that Lachie went missing, Thurston went into her garage and saw a cannabis cigarette butt.

“She [Thurston] picked it up, and you turned up, and you asked for a puff, and she lit it and you both had a small puff.”

Officer replied: “That wasn’t on the night of Lachie’s death, definitely not.

“I think she’s getting mixed up.”

Mount asked whether it was possible it happened on another night, and Officer said “possibly”.

“Because I was so fricken down and out, so, on another night, but it wasn’t on the night of Lachie’s death, definitely not.”

Mount asked how many times the two women would have shared a puff on a cannabis cigarette.

“She’s saying once. Once because I don’t actually like it,” Officer answered.

She went on to say: “She’s just found a butt … and I just probably had a puff but I can’t remember it. I vaguely can remember something but it was definitely after Lachie passed, it wasn’t on the night.

“I was too engaged in looking for Lachie and I was waiting on the police, so I wouldn’t have had a chance to do that on the night.”

After a pause, she said: “It could have even been weeks after.”

Mount also questioned Officer about a text she received from her son in the hours after Lachie was found, asking where the “grinder” was.

Officer admitted it was a cannabis cutter, and she said she might have seen it in the house and put it in a tent bag in the shed, but she couldn’t remember.

She said cannabis was not something that happened inside the house and Mount would have to ask her son about it.

During her two days of giving evidence, Officer had repeatedly told the hearing that she was traumatised during the night Lachie died and could only remember “snapshots” of information, and some only after her memory had been prompted by seeing texts or other information.

The inquest continued on Wednesday, with Officer’s youngest son to give evidence.