Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
Kyota at Chelsea Daniels here, host of the Front Page.
We're taking a week breakover summer, but to help fill
the gap, we're reissuing some of our most significant episodes
of twenty twenty five on behalf of the Front Page team.
Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back
with you on January twelfth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Kyota.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. French exchange
student Elois Roland was last seen five.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Years ago today.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
The then eighteen year old's disappearance has baffled authorities ever since.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Was it murder, a kidnapping, an accident?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Did he get lost in the bush, commit suicide or
plan an escape?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Is he still alive? Does he want to be found?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
He searches Google Maps for directions to Peeh about five
am that morning, walks for nearly two hours. He turns
onto Piha Road about nine to sixteen am, and at
nine forty eight am the battery on his phone goes
dead and then nothing nothing For five years. Today, on
(01:34):
the Front Page, Herald's senior journalist an Elise joins us
as we take a look back at Eloi's disappearance, we'll
also hear some clips from my conversations with Aloa's parents,
Tieri and Catmine, and Bruno du Bois of A Cappella Productions,
who directed a documentary series in France about Lawa's story
(01:57):
and Elois disappeared five years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Can you tell me a little bit about the investigation.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Initially, police were able to ascertain that after he left
his host family's home, which was on the north Shore,
he came into town and got on a train who
was sent at Britomart, the big transport center in Auckland,
and then he was seen again on camera in West Auckland,
and from there they know that he's probably walked ten
kilometers to the area of Peiha Road. That's where his
(02:24):
cell phone was tracked to and that's where it stopped.
They checked that area extensively. They went through the bush,
they went door knocking, they just did everything they could
in that area to find traces of him, and there
was just nothing. At some point later on they found
a T shirt and that was sent off to be
forensically tested, but wasn't his.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
There's been a lot of interest about his disappearance here,
but also actually in France. I've spoken with the director there,
Bruno d'u pois of a Cappella Productions, about a documentary
series he actually did, and he's told me it's gotten
a lot of traction over there.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
In France. We heard a lot about this toy because
at this time it was COVID. I discover by Facebook
and I was very concerned because it was very strange.
We don't heard about this do it? And I think
it was a very very big injustice. And they start
to work about this. Toya meets the family and promised
(03:20):
to help them to try to understand what's happened to Eloids.
And after we have to wait for two years before
can come to New Zealand because you know use Alund
closing border to her to wait is a long way,
a long time. It was very difficult for parents and
as this time we can only work with internet. With
(03:42):
his family, we tried to find everything about his life
in New Zealand by such a networks activity.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I think it's important to note el One went missing
in the early days of COVID. Hey the week after
he went missing, the who actually officially declared a global pandemic.
This gives us some insight into how it's disappearance kind
of flew under the radar a bit.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Hey, yeah, it absolutely did. And a lot of people
go missing in New Zealand and turn up later on.
So there's a lot of stories that we do, a
lot of press releases we get from policing. This person
is missing and then a few hours later they've been found.
We knew that Alwa hadn't been found, we knew that
he was still missing, but also this huge, big pandemic
was happening at the time, and a lot of things
(04:26):
just became sort of secondary, I guess in the headlines,
and that must have been so frustrating for his family
being on the other side of the world. They can't
get here to search themselves. But the police have assured
that they've just done everything they can. They've chased every lead,
any tip that's come in, they've looked at and if
it's you know, if it's something they can work with,
they have done that. But it was such an unprecedented
(04:49):
and unknown time in the world, and I think that
the events of COVID definitely took this over for sure.
And again, I just cannot imagine someone in my family
being missing on the other side of the world and
not being able to physically go there and look for
them myself and see the area and understand what might
have been going on.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So Elua came to New Zealand to study English, and
as far as his family was aware, he didn't actually
have any previous mental health concerns. But what kind of
behavior did he exhibit while he was here, so there were.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
No red flags for his host family. He had planned
to go home earlier. He changed his flights to go
home earlier in the month. I think he was Judigo
home in late May, and he changed his flight to
the twenty first. He told friends that he was homesick.
He felt very lonely here and he was missing friends
and family. He wanted to just go back to France.
(05:39):
And he was actually really excited because he had a
test coming up to get into the Air Force and
he wanted to go back and do that early and
move on with that. So he was a young person
with plans and he was excited about his future. But
at the same time he was homesick. He was, you know,
speaking about loneliness, and you know, there were some other
things going on. You know, I think there had been
a romantic situation that hadn't gone his way, and understandably
(06:01):
he wasn't feeling great. But even so, his friends that
he spoke to regularly didn't have any sort of huge
concerns about him at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So Bruno, the director I spoke to, actually said from
the videos that he had seen, they thought maybe it
was schizophrenia, because you start developing those symptoms around that age.
But he did say that he's not a psychologist and
it could have been something else like depression. In the
months leading up to his disappearance, he had apparently fallen
in love with a French girl at his class. She
(06:35):
had a boyfriend who arrived in December. His teacher said
his mood changes, he started acting weird. He was sacked
from two restaurant jobs. At one of them, security took
a video of him ranting and raving after being thrown out,
and he sends a video to his parents saying the
owner of the hotel he worked at created the coronavirus
and said that he wanted to quote kill him. One
(06:58):
thing though, for certain, is that Elois felt alone.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
All those students start to judge him, has some strange
guy and if you work very alone. At this time,
he start to the publication on Facebook and Mastagram, strength
very long, very politive about his bad feeling, his sad feeling.
He was as sick, but he said a lot, he
(07:24):
said a lot in the social network. Everybody around him,
especially for those students in US school, rejected him and
don't help him. And I think there is something with
more kind of kindness. Maybe somebody can help him and say, Okay,
you are sick. We can go in the hospitality or
doctor and we will help you. That's what happened.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You think basically he was acting strange. He may have
developed some kind of mental health condition, like perhaps schizophrenia,
and that kind of explains his rational behavior. What clues
did you find by looking through his social media accounts.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
We found a lot of things and a lot of
mysage message he was very alone. He feels very alone,
and nobody else helps him. He sent a lot, a
lot and a lot of message and story. And when
somebody do that, obviously it's for to caull help.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
In one message, he's said by a voice message, everybody
can see I need help, but they don't. He said
it what is also very sad that he understanding himself.
He has some trouble. He wondered himself about what's happened
to him, and he said it. He said it a
(08:48):
lot on story by voice message, but everybody wiljecting nobody had.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And what have police said about the investigation into Elwa's disappearance.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Look, they've said all along that it remains open, that
they will follow up any line of inquiry in it.
You know, in cases like this, they don't stay active
on a daily basis. You know, police can only do
so much and then they have to sort of move
to the next phase of an investigation. So while this
is never closed, there's not a whole team working on
it every day. They have promised though that if there
(09:30):
is new information, they'll act on it. And you know,
it's a hard part of New Zealand when someone goes
missing out on that west coast. And I don't think
a lot of people understand that the area our bush
is intense. It's not just a little forest, it's not
just some trees. It's really heavy forestation and it's a
(09:51):
really precarious sort of you know ground and terrain, and
police can only do so much they employ search and
rescue professionals, they use dogs, they drones now and heat
seeking drones, and they've got so many ways to look
for people and they employ all of those in a
case like this. They've always said they won't close this
(10:12):
case until or unless they, you know, have really good
reason to. There have been other cases of people that
have gone missing in that area, and after a while,
the only sort of logical conclusion is that they have
passed away, and those cases have been referred to the coroner.
Aloa's case hasn't yet, and police have assured his family
and us, you know, multiple times that in any new
(10:35):
information they will act on and it remains open and
anyone with information is encouraged to come forward.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So documentary filmmaker Dupois and the Rolands, they think that
there are endless scenarios about what could have happened to Elois.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
We already can't know what's happened to you. We already
can not because we have no information, no clues. So
I'm not sure. I think maybe my conviction is Issues
is shoes to live. But probably it went bad, I
think in first issues, but probably it went bad. But
(11:11):
I'm sure you know suicide and maybe what he's missing.
Now it's a criminal investigation, but we have no fact
that investigation, but we have no fact for missing, for suicidal,
and the fact as a believer as a bush.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So the detective in charge of the investigation told The
Herald in twenty twenty two he thought it was unlikely
that Aloa made it to the Black Sands of Piha Beach.
He said, my thoughts are still the bush. He's potentially
tried to take a shortcut to the beach and didn't
realize how far that would be and overestimated his abilities.
(11:50):
He said, it's pretty gnarly in there. It is possible
he's just thought, well, it's like a straight line down there,
so it shouldn't be a problem, and maybe he's gotten
into some grief in the bush somewhere.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
The police have always told me that they're keeping an
open mind. Obviously the area Aloi has gone missing in
or was last seen, and is that really intense bush
sort of area. There's lots of places out there where
people can slip and fall and have accidents and may
not necessarily be found quickly. Now there's people out there
(12:21):
that have never been found, unfortunately, but police are open
to any any theory or any you know, they've not
shut down anything. There's no signs of foul play, there's
no signs of any sort of kidnap or you know,
suspicious circumstance. But equally, if someone came forward with information,
you know, the police have said that they will investigate that.
(12:44):
I just can't imagine what it's like for Aloi's family to,
as I said, not be able to come here and
to know and have that closure. There's just so many
unknowns for them, and you know, unsurprisingly, they must constantly
think about different ways and means that he's gone missing,
and that must be absolutely torturing for them.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Thanks for joining us, Anna, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I spoke with Aniwa's parents, Tieri and Katerine, and they
came to New Zealand in twenty twenty two. They appealed
to the public for any information about their son, and
they told me the five years since Elawa's disappearance just
feels like five days.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
We are we are very we feel very heartbreaking, very worry.
On the It's very difficult since it's disciplined every day,
every night, really think to a war. It's very difficult
because we have not news of the war because of
(13:48):
the investigation. Police are very difficult for home, it's not
easy to communicate and every every day, the week, every month,
we try to keep the contact with New Zealand the authority.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
What do you think happens?
Speaker 5 (14:08):
In fact we always it is safe and in good health,
but it's very difficult. We have done everything to keep
open police investigations.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
The police did a lot of such in the area
where i Wa disappeared, but she didn't find anything and
we we still don't know what what happened.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I have spoken with police and they say the file
remains open and to the disappearance of al Wir el
Wa is still a missing person and police continue to
follow up any news.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
We are very greatful.
Speaker 6 (14:57):
We are very grateful because for us, it's very important
that I war stay in the in the main and
the main of of the people on the world, on
the earth. The most important is that the people remember
ill war because perhaps y yeah, do you have a testimony?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzidherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also
a sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the front
page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
(15:49):
tune in on Monday for another look behind the headlines.