A coronial court will this week hear new evidence about the disappearance of an 11-year-old Southland boy more than a decade ago.
Mike Zhao-Beckenridge went missing in March 2015 after he was picked up from his Invercargill school by his stepfather, helicopter pilot John Beckenridge, in breach of a court order.
A week later, Beckenridge’s car went off a nearly 90m cliff in Southland.
But when the car was recovered, there were no signs of bodies inside.
Ten years later, there are still conflicting theories about what happened. Police believe the case was a murder-suicide, but Mike’s mother Fiona Lu argues her son is still alive.
If he is alive, he would now be 21 years old.
A coronial hearing is now under way to hear further analysis of evidence from the clifftop scene, including on whether the car could have been tampered with to send it into the water without a driver inside.
It will also hear fresh evidence from people connected to the farmland where the car went over the edge.
‘We helped them’
A decade ago, Mike Zhao-Beckenridge vanished with his stepfather John Beckenridge and their car was found at the bottom of a near 90m Southland cliff. (Source: 1News)
This new lead emerged after the previous hearing and has been investigated by police, who filed an updated report just a few months ago in November 2024.
The counsel assisting the coroner, Rebekah Jordan, said in an opening statement today that the court will hear from a man named Oliver Watson, who will give evidence that his cousin, Paul Watson, spoke about helping the pair escape.
Watson’s family has connections to the land where the car disappeared and helped in the search around the time the car went off the cliff.
The hearing would be told of a phone call between the two men, Jordan said.
“Oliver Watson’s evidence will be that during the phone call, Paul Watson said, ‘we helped them out and they are alive’,” she said.
However, Paul Watson will also be called as a witness, and is expected to deny this.
“He says this is untrue,” Jordan said.
In the meantime, the court will today hear from Dr John Raine, an expert who has analysed evidence surrounding the vehicle itself, and can assess whether it went into the water without a driver.
The hearing is not an inquest but has been convened to assist the coroner, Marcus Elliott, to determine whether there is jurisdiction to open an inquiry.
“The main issue is whether it is likely that Mike and John Beckenridge are dead,” Jordan said.
A staged disappearance?
Mike Zhao-Beckenridge went missing in 2015 after being picked up from school by his stepfather. (Source: 1News)
A two-week coronial hearing was held in 2023 to determine whether it was an apparent act of filicide, or whether the disappearance was planned.
At the time, police said they believed Beckenridge hated his ex-wife – Mike’s mother – and this may have led him to kill himself and Mike.
But the schoolboy had been rallying against a court order to live with his mother and sent his stepfather several emails in the lead-up to the disappearance saying he hated her.
This made some in the family believe that the disappearance was staged by Beckenridge, who had four aliases.
