‘A shambles’: Coroner orders third investigation into death of Gore toddler

Friday, 13 June 2025

A coroner has found there is no reliable evidence to support that anyone else was involved in the death of a Gore toddler, but is scathing of the police investigation and has ordered the death to be re-investigated for a third time.

Coroner Alexander Ho has called for the death of three-year-old Lachlan Jones to be re-investigated by an experienced officer from outside the Southland district, who could apply a fresh lens.

Lachie was found dead in a Gore oxidation pond 1.2km from his home on the night of January 29, 2019.

At the time, police quickly concluded the toddler had wandered away from his neighbour’s house without his mother Michelle Officer noticing, and drowned.

Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, has always questioned that theory and how Lachie was able to run the more than 1km distance in a soiled nappy and how, even though he was barefoot when he ran over gravel and sharp debris, there were no marks found on his feet.

He has also questioned how accidental drowning was found as the cause of death, because no fluid was found in Lachie’s lungs during an autopsy.

In his findings, released on Friday, the coroner found Lachie could have been capable of making it to the ponds on his own steam.

“It appears that Lachie was, like many New Zealand children, accustomed to being outside in only bare feet.”

The coroner concluded that there was no reliable evidence to support that anyone else was involved in Lachie’s death.

“The fact that I am directing a re-investigation should not be taken as implicating any individual as complicit in or responsible for Lachie’s death.

“Although the possibility of a third party cannot be absolutely excluded – it is difficult to disprove a negative – the proposition strains credulity and there is no evidence to support it,” he said.

He also said he could not rule out the fact that Lachie died of a head injury because the pathologist, who has interim name suppression, did not perform the full post-mortem examination that was directed by the duty coroner.

The coroner said police are to provide another report before January 16, 2026 and the findings are to be provided to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

In the findings, the coroner said that several witnesses saw Lachie on Salford St on the night he died.

He said the general consistency among the three groups of eyewitnesses strongly supported an inference that they saw the same child, in one collective sighting, and that the features they identified are sufficient for him to find, on the balance of probabilities, that child was Lachie.

This discredited theories put forward that Lachie had been killed earlier in the day and stored in a freezer until his body was dumped in the pond by a member of his family.

There was much media focus on the testimonies of Lachie’s mother Michelle Officer and half-brother Jonathan Scott during the inquest last year, and although the coroner found several inconsistencies and omissions in their statements and testimonies, he found them all explainable and did not believe either of them killed the toddler.

However, he said there remain unanswered questions about Lachie’s supervision before he escaped.

“I am not convinced that we have heard the entire truth about the events of 29 January 2019. It is to be a full and fresh investigation.”

Shortcomings of investigation

The coroner found several shortcomings in the police’s initial response and subsequent second investigation that included delays in gathering evidence and speaking to witnesses.

There was confusion around who the officer in charge was and the police formed a view almost immediately after Lachie’s body was discovered which meant they never treated his death as suspicious or unexplained, and that a full post mortem was not carried out.

There was no expert criminal investigative input into the first investigation, the coroner said, and the police investigator who was at the scene was there in his search and rescue role; after already working a 12 hour day.

Much of the investigation relied on the evidence of witnesses, with some potentially being considered unreliable after their credibility was called into question, while the coroner found some relevant witnesses weren’t interviewed at all.

The coroner questioned why there was no attempt by police to investigate foul play when there was two hours between the last sighting of Lachie and his body being found, and highlighted inaccuracies in police reports.

The police’s early assumption that his death was an accident, coupled with their failure to follow criminal investigation standards, mistakes in witness statements and when they were taken, a lack of co-ordination, and inadequate scene investigations directly impacted his ability to make safe findings, the coroner said.

The evidence available to him, even on the balance of probabilities, was simply not enough to make a definitive decision on what happened the night Lachie died, so much so that he gave serious thought to whether he could provide any findings at all.

“It may be that the circumstances of how Lachie came to be in water far from home was a calamitous confluence of chance. But, in ending, it would be remiss to overlook the fact that Lachie was able to come to harm because he was not being adequately supervised, or to overlook how the conduct of the subsequent police and medical investigations into this death have compromised my ability to make findings about how a vulnerable three year old child came to die.

“Bluntly, it is difficult to escape the lingering impression that much of what occurred was a shambles which could, and should, have been avoided,” he said.

Police assistant commissioner Mike Johnson said police acknowledge the findings and will now need to consider them findings and the direction by the coroner to undertake a third investigation.

“We will work diligently on all aspects we need to undertake to progress that with the appropriate resources and urgency to complete this direction as is required.

“Police want to acknowledge Lachie’s family and the impact his death and the subsequent processes have had on them. Police have previously acknowledged but reiterate again today that our initial action following Lachie’s death fell short of the high expectations we set for ourselves.

“As a result of Lachie’s death, police have implemented a national policy change which requires that CIB must be consulted for any death of a baby, child, or young person and where possible attend all scenes. The CIB will also be required to oversee or lead any investigation into the death of an infant or child under 10.”