August 5, 2024 • 12 mins
On January 29, 2019, 3-year-old Gore toddler Lachie Jones was found dead in an oxidation pond, a little over a kilometre away from his mother’s home.
Two police investigations concluded Lachie drowned, but his father, Paul Jones, does not accept these findings, and believes he was murdered.
Ahead of the second phase of a coronial inquest into Lachie’s death, his mother, Michelle Officer, has spoken for the first time to the Herald’s Ben Tomsett about her side of the story.
Today on The Front Page, Ben Tomsett joins us to digest that interview, and how this case has evolved.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer: Paddy Fox
Producer: Ethan Sills
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. On the
twenty ninth of January twenty nineteen, three year old Gore
toddler Lockey Jones was found dead in an oxidation pond
(00:26):
a little over a kilometer away from his mother's home.
Two police investigations concluded Lockey drowned, but his father, Paul Jones,
does not accept these findings and believes he was murdered.
Ahead of the second phase of a coronial inquest into
Locke's death, his mother, Michelle Officer, has spoken for the
(00:51):
first time to The Herald's Ben tom Set about her
side of the story. Today on the Front Page, Ben
tom Set joins us to digest asked that interview and
how this case has evolved.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Ben, can we start with the.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Established facts of that night and twenty nineteen. What have
police concluded happened to Locke Jones?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So, two police investigations have found that Lockie Jones died
by drowning in the Council oxidation pond and Gore on
that night. Police have concluded that Locke did walk to
the pond. His body was found one point two kilometers
from his home, which is walking distance from his mother's home.
(01:43):
His body was discovered face up underwater in the oxidation
pond by a police dog handler. He was unable to
be revived when he was pulled from the water, and
the subsequent investigation year found that Lockie had drowned. They
followed it up with another investigation ruling the same conclusion.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
The toddler was found dead in a council oxidation pond
five years ago, about a kilometer from his school home.
The general pathologist to conducted the little boy's autopsy since
he was told it wasn't a suspicious death, so conducted
a general autopsy and didn't look for signs of foul play.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So Paul Jones, his father, has vocally disputed this version
of events, right to the point that you noted in
one article he was the driving force behind this inquest
we're talking about today.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What is he argued.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So Paul has long disputed the two police investigations, and
he's been arguing that his son was murdered. During the inquest,
allegations were flat out leveled at the mother of Lockie Jones,
Paul's expartner and Michelle's other sons, and basically Paul believes
(02:56):
that either Lockie's mother or his brothers somehow had a
role to play in his death.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
How older is brothers at the time?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Johnny Officer who was living with Michelle and Lockey at
the time, he was sixteen years old. He's now twenty one,
and Cameron he was nineteen at the time.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You were at the first stage of the coronial inquest
earlier this year for the Herald.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
What is the purpose of this inquest?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
The purpose of the inquest is to establish the facts
and the timeline leading up to Locke's death and how
exactly he died. So now basically just trying to establish
a factual timeline and the actual facts of how Locke died.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
He's no logic to it all. If he wanted to
jump and he would to jump in at the first
poond to walk through all that rap terrain, preckles, thistles, stones,
it was sheepshitt where it would have been all over speed.
We went out there the next day. He had cupped
some marks on our feet or bites in that and
yet he arrived at the funeral home of Purple perfect condition.
(04:10):
Not one mark on him. How does that add up?
There's no forensics done and that the whole thing was
shut down that night should have never been shut down.
The police didn't do their job. He has experienced people there,
They knew what their job was. They haven't done it,
and I want to know why.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
That inquest, it revealed a confused chain of command amongst
police at the scene.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So during the initial investigation, there was some confusion amongst
the responding officers about who was in charge. To put
it plainly, it seems like they were ill equipped for
the immediate investigation on the night and formal chain command
was not established. Two of the responding officers both believed
(05:04):
the other to be in charge, and.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The pathologist who performed Locke's autopsy was also questioned as
a part of that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Hey, what was their testimony?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So he had name Suppression. The pathologists who conducted the
autopsy had named Suppression. But they did talk about examining
Lockie's body and the days after he was found dead,
and his pathologist report has been criticized by senior pathologists.
They did note that conducting pathology reports on children was
(05:37):
not their general criteria, but because the autopsy was conducted
in for cargol. Circumstances led to this particular pathologists conducting
the autopsy, and they said they went into the autopsy
on the assumption that Locke had been drowned, because that
had been noted on the police report. So his lung
(06:00):
were not checked for water, but they were a weighed
and his head was not opened up, so it was
not established whether there had been any damage to Locke's
head or anything like that. But the weight of his lungs,
there is some dispute about the weight of his lungs
not being in line with the weight that would be
(06:21):
expected if Lockie had drowned.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
During those three weeks, the lawyer for Paul Jones repeatedly
insinuated that Lockie's mother, Michelle Officer, and her two older
sons had a role to play in this death. Like
you mentioned before, how did those examinations play out in
the inquest?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So, Paul Jones's lawyer, Max Simpkins, he held quite lengthy
examinations of Michelle Officer, her sons and other witnesses. Michelle
Officer's evidence went for two days and throughout those two days,
Max did put it quite bluntly that well, he asked
(07:11):
bluntly if Michelle had had a role in Locke's death.
He asked her if Lockey was put in a freezer,
what she denied, And he basically asked her several times
and in multiple different ways, if she or her other
sons had anything to do with Lockey's death. The same
(07:33):
win for when her sons were on the stand, he
asked them very bluntly if Lockey had died earlier that
day and been put in a freezer while they figured
out what to do with them, which they denied. Yeah,
he put her multiple ways. He put multiple accusations and
insinuations that Michelle or her sons had something to do
(07:54):
with the death or were otherwise involved in the cover up.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You spoke with Michelle recently in her first media interview
in the five years since her son died. Given the
media coverage this case has had that she has not
participated in. How did this interview come about? Why did
she want to speak now?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So I have been in slight contact with Michelle for
a little while now, speaking about the potential for an
interview which she was really hesitant to partake, and she
has said that she does have faith in the justice system,
but despite the finding of the police investigations, it was
(08:35):
becoming clear that the story almost has a life of
its own, and she felt the need to speak out
against the allegations that have continued to be propagated despite
the official findings. So she was very reluctant, but essentially
wanted to have people understand what she's been going through
throughout these past five years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
In Ben's piece, he wrote about how in twenty twenty one,
Michelle Officer read in a local newspaper that a headstone
unveiling ceremony had been scheduled for Locke's birthday. When she
reached out to the local funeral home, she was advised
to seek legal counsel. The headstone omitted any mention of
Locke's mother or brothers. Here's a voice actor reading what
(09:24):
Michelle told the Herald about that experience and what the
last five years.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Have been like for her.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Me and my children went up to Lockey's grave that
night after dark, because we knew no one would be there,
because I didn't want to walk into an ambush of people.
So we walked up to the site on his birthday
and it was already there. It just destroyed us. I
honestly thought we would have done a headstone together, father,
mother and brothers. That's not where I go to remember
(09:51):
Lockey because it brings back all those feelings and accusations.
I'm still really grieving, and I've been accused of not
grieving as a story. It keeps coming up in the
media every few months. Just makes me feel sick with anxiety.
It hasn't stopped for five and a half years. I
just want to grieve in private. It's cruel and unfair.
(10:13):
And the people making these judgments, how would they cope
with it? Words can't express what you go through.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
How does she remember Locke?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's clear that she really loved Lockie. She remembers him
as a very energetic, bubbly young boy. They had a
lot of adventures together. They would go to the park,
and she said several times that she loved being a mother.
That was always her number one thing, to be a mother.
And she finds it hard to draw back those memories
(10:47):
of Lockie because of the pain associated with the loss
and ben.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The second part of the coronial inquest starts this week.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
What's expected to be covered.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Now, so the next two weeks We're going to be
hearing from expert witnesses, so that'll be some of the
senior pathologists who earlier critiques the pathologists who conducted Locke's
initial autopsy. We're going to be hearing from a retired
(11:18):
American FBI agent former FBI agent who has also heavily
criticized the police investigations. And we're going to be hearing
from Locke's brother. Johnny is going to be reappearing during
the second week to give evidence for a second time.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Thanks for joining us, Ben, That said, for this episode
of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage at enzet Herald.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Dot co dot nz.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills with sound
engineer Patty Fox.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'm Chelsea Daniel.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Another look behind the headlines.
Kilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. On the
twenty ninth of January twenty nineteen, three year old Gore
toddler Lockey Jones was found dead in an oxidation pond
(00:26):
a little over a kilometer away from his mother's home.
Two police investigations concluded Lockey drowned, but his father, Paul Jones,
does not accept these findings and believes he was murdered.
Ahead of the second phase of a coronial inquest into
Locke's death, his mother, Michelle Officer, has spoken for the
(00:51):
first time to The Herald's Ben tom Set about her
side of the story. Today on the Front Page, Ben
tom Set joins us to digest asked that interview and
how this case has evolved.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Ben, can we start with the.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Established facts of that night and twenty nineteen. What have
police concluded happened to Locke Jones?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So, two police investigations have found that Lockie Jones died
by drowning in the Council oxidation pond and Gore on
that night. Police have concluded that Locke did walk to
the pond. His body was found one point two kilometers
from his home, which is walking distance from his mother's home.
(01:43):
His body was discovered face up underwater in the oxidation
pond by a police dog handler. He was unable to
be revived when he was pulled from the water, and
the subsequent investigation year found that Lockie had drowned. They
followed it up with another investigation ruling the same conclusion.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
The toddler was found dead in a council oxidation pond
five years ago, about a kilometer from his school home.
The general pathologist to conducted the little boy's autopsy since
he was told it wasn't a suspicious death, so conducted
a general autopsy and didn't look for signs of foul play.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So Paul Jones, his father, has vocally disputed this version
of events, right to the point that you noted in
one article he was the driving force behind this inquest
we're talking about today.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What is he argued.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So Paul has long disputed the two police investigations, and
he's been arguing that his son was murdered. During the inquest,
allegations were flat out leveled at the mother of Lockie Jones,
Paul's expartner and Michelle's other sons, and basically Paul believes
(02:56):
that either Lockie's mother or his brothers somehow had a
role to play in his death.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
How older is brothers at the time?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Johnny Officer who was living with Michelle and Lockey at
the time, he was sixteen years old. He's now twenty one,
and Cameron he was nineteen at the time.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You were at the first stage of the coronial inquest
earlier this year for the Herald.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
What is the purpose of this inquest?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
The purpose of the inquest is to establish the facts
and the timeline leading up to Locke's death and how
exactly he died. So now basically just trying to establish
a factual timeline and the actual facts of how Locke died.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
He's no logic to it all. If he wanted to
jump and he would to jump in at the first
poond to walk through all that rap terrain, preckles, thistles, stones,
it was sheepshitt where it would have been all over speed.
We went out there the next day. He had cupped
some marks on our feet or bites in that and
yet he arrived at the funeral home of Purple perfect condition.
(04:10):
Not one mark on him. How does that add up?
There's no forensics done and that the whole thing was
shut down that night should have never been shut down.
The police didn't do their job. He has experienced people there,
They knew what their job was. They haven't done it,
and I want to know why.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
That inquest, it revealed a confused chain of command amongst
police at the scene.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So during the initial investigation, there was some confusion amongst
the responding officers about who was in charge. To put
it plainly, it seems like they were ill equipped for
the immediate investigation on the night and formal chain command
was not established. Two of the responding officers both believed
(05:04):
the other to be in charge, and.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The pathologist who performed Locke's autopsy was also questioned as
a part of that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Hey, what was their testimony?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So he had name Suppression. The pathologists who conducted the
autopsy had named Suppression. But they did talk about examining
Lockie's body and the days after he was found dead,
and his pathologist report has been criticized by senior pathologists.
They did note that conducting pathology reports on children was
(05:37):
not their general criteria, but because the autopsy was conducted
in for cargol. Circumstances led to this particular pathologists conducting
the autopsy, and they said they went into the autopsy
on the assumption that Locke had been drowned, because that
had been noted on the police report. So his lung
(06:00):
were not checked for water, but they were a weighed
and his head was not opened up, so it was
not established whether there had been any damage to Locke's
head or anything like that. But the weight of his lungs,
there is some dispute about the weight of his lungs
not being in line with the weight that would be
(06:21):
expected if Lockie had drowned.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
During those three weeks, the lawyer for Paul Jones repeatedly
insinuated that Lockie's mother, Michelle Officer, and her two older
sons had a role to play in this death. Like
you mentioned before, how did those examinations play out in
the inquest?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So, Paul Jones's lawyer, Max Simpkins, he held quite lengthy
examinations of Michelle Officer, her sons and other witnesses. Michelle
Officer's evidence went for two days and throughout those two days,
Max did put it quite bluntly that well, he asked
(07:11):
bluntly if Michelle had had a role in Locke's death.
He asked her if Lockey was put in a freezer,
what she denied, And he basically asked her several times
and in multiple different ways, if she or her other
sons had anything to do with Lockey's death. The same
(07:33):
win for when her sons were on the stand, he
asked them very bluntly if Lockey had died earlier that
day and been put in a freezer while they figured
out what to do with them, which they denied. Yeah,
he put her multiple ways. He put multiple accusations and
insinuations that Michelle or her sons had something to do
(07:54):
with the death or were otherwise involved in the cover up.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You spoke with Michelle recently in her first media interview
in the five years since her son died. Given the
media coverage this case has had that she has not
participated in. How did this interview come about? Why did
she want to speak now?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So I have been in slight contact with Michelle for
a little while now, speaking about the potential for an
interview which she was really hesitant to partake, and she
has said that she does have faith in the justice system,
but despite the finding of the police investigations, it was
(08:35):
becoming clear that the story almost has a life of
its own, and she felt the need to speak out
against the allegations that have continued to be propagated despite
the official findings. So she was very reluctant, but essentially
wanted to have people understand what she's been going through
throughout these past five years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
In Ben's piece, he wrote about how in twenty twenty one,
Michelle Officer read in a local newspaper that a headstone
unveiling ceremony had been scheduled for Locke's birthday. When she
reached out to the local funeral home, she was advised
to seek legal counsel. The headstone omitted any mention of
Locke's mother or brothers. Here's a voice actor reading what
(09:24):
Michelle told the Herald about that experience and what the
last five years.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Have been like for her.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Me and my children went up to Lockey's grave that
night after dark, because we knew no one would be there,
because I didn't want to walk into an ambush of people.
So we walked up to the site on his birthday
and it was already there. It just destroyed us. I
honestly thought we would have done a headstone together, father,
mother and brothers. That's not where I go to remember
(09:51):
Lockey because it brings back all those feelings and accusations.
I'm still really grieving, and I've been accused of not
grieving as a story. It keeps coming up in the
media every few months. Just makes me feel sick with anxiety.
It hasn't stopped for five and a half years. I
just want to grieve in private. It's cruel and unfair.
(10:13):
And the people making these judgments, how would they cope
with it? Words can't express what you go through.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
How does she remember Locke?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's clear that she really loved Lockie. She remembers him
as a very energetic, bubbly young boy. They had a
lot of adventures together. They would go to the park,
and she said several times that she loved being a mother.
That was always her number one thing, to be a mother.
And she finds it hard to draw back those memories
(10:47):
of Lockie because of the pain associated with the loss
and ben.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The second part of the coronial inquest starts this week.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
What's expected to be covered.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Now, so the next two weeks We're going to be
hearing from expert witnesses, so that'll be some of the
senior pathologists who earlier critiques the pathologists who conducted Locke's
initial autopsy. We're going to be hearing from a retired
(11:18):
American FBI agent former FBI agent who has also heavily
criticized the police investigations. And we're going to be hearing
from Locke's brother. Johnny is going to be reappearing during
the second week to give evidence for a second time.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Thanks for joining us, Ben, That said, for this episode
of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage at enzet Herald.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Dot co dot nz.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills with sound
engineer Patty Fox.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'm Chelsea Daniel.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Another look behind the headlines.
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