John and Mike Beckenridge disappeared on March 13, 2015 and have not been seen since. Photo / Supplied
John and Mike Beckenridge disappeared on March 13, 2015 and have not been seen since. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: This article discusses suicide and may be distressing.
The mother of missing boy Mike Zhao-Beckenridge believes her son is still alive, living overseas under a new identity, and will contact her when he is no longer “under the influence” of his stepfather.
Swedish-born helicopter pilot John Beckenridge broke a court order by collecting 11-year-old stepson Mike from his Invercargill school on March 13, 2015.
Now, a coroner is tasked with establishing whether the missing pair, who vanished after going on the run, are dead in a hearing that began last week.
“She believed John cared too much about Mike to hurt him,” private investigator Mark Templeman told the hearing in the Christchurch District Court this morning.
A week after the school pick-up, Beckenridge’s 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off a cliff near Curio Bay, in Southland.
But when police recovered the vehicle there were no signs of any bodies.
However, Mike’s mother Fiona Lu is convinced her son is alive and that former partner Beckenridge staged the pair’s death after she moved Mike from Beckenridge’s Queenstown home to Invercargill with new partner Peter Russell.
Today the hearing in front of Coroner Marcus Elliott heard from police, who believe the pair are dead, and from Templeman who, speaking on behalf of Mike’s family, believes the pair are alive.
‘Murder suicide’ theory
Deirdre Elsmore, for the police, said there were two scenarios for the coroner to consider.
Firstly, that Beckenridge staged the pair’s death and escaped the Catlins area, or that he drove off the cliff, essentially murdering Mike and committing suicide in the process.
Elsmore also spoke about the possibility of a “suicide pact” given the concerning nature of Mike’s emails referencing suicide; however, issues around consent were also raised as Mike was 11 at the time.
Elsmore said while there was “no conclusive evidence” the pair died in the cliff crash, there were aspects that would lead the coroner to believe they are dead, such as Beckenridge’s state of mind leading up to the disappearance and his “obsessive relationship” with Mike.
Following the Queenstown Family Court hearing resulting in Fiona Lu having care of Mike, Beckenridge’s mental health declined into “desperation”, Elsmore said.
Elsmore said it “was no coincidence” the pair disappeared in circumstances that led Lu to wonder if they were alive or not, as this would be the “ultimate punishment” from Beckenridge after she entered a relationship with a new man.
Further, Beckenridge lacked the funds, the support of associates and the “clarity of mind” to pull off an “extremely difficult and complex” escape from the Catlins area.
Beckenridge also looked at the Curio Bay area on Google Maps, particularly at the coastline the vehicle went off, three days before he took Mike, the first indication of his “planned abduction”, Elsmore said.
Peter Russell, the current partner of Fiona Lu. Photo / Mike Scott
Elsmore said a “stake” made from two pieces of wood tied together with rope at the cliff edge was used to ensure the vehicle would hit the water, leading to death, rather than hit the rocks or beach which may have resulted in serious injury.
She said there were two sets of tyre marks found at the clifftop, indicating there was a trip to the edge of the cliff before the vehicle retreated and then went toward the edge of the cliff again.
Brake marks ceased at 9.8 metres from the cliff edge, meaning someone needed to be behind the wheel roughly 10m before the cliff edge.
Elsmore also said the box of documents and a letter Beckenridge left for his Queenstown-based lawyer asking him to contact a friend in relation to his trust and estate showed he had no need for his belongings.
The letter read: “It will now be up to him how to do with what is left of my “belongings”! Thanks for your assistance over the years. Very helpfull [sic]!”
The woman claimed she recognised the pair when they were roughly 20m away from her and while the pair were in “happy conversation”, but Elsmore said the woman didn’t pick up on their accents which would have been distinctive.
The woman, who has name suppression, earlier told the inquest she was “100 per cent certain” it was the Beckenridges at the time but now is 85 per cent certain.
Her reasoning was that Beckenridge looked “relaxed and happy”, which was different to photos she had seen in the media.
It took police six weeks before they could recover the battered vehicle belonging to John Beckenridge. Photo / Supplied
Elsmore said it would be very difficult for the pair to make it past the border without being recognised as they were an “unusual coupling”.
She said one adult might have been able to escape the country by using a private boat or by bribing a cargo ship, but with an 11-year-old boy, this would have been difficult.
There was no reliable evidence the pair remained in New Zealand and no reliable evidence they left the country, Elsmore said.
“It is the police submission that on the balance of probabilities, both John and Mike Beckenridge died when their car left the cliff and the coroner does have jurisdiction in this matter.”
However, Templeman said Mike’s mother and her partnerfirmly believed the pair were alive and that Beckenridge staged his and Mike’s death.
Templeman said Beckenridge borrowed money from friends leading up to his disappearance to “create the impression” he couldn’t afford to escape the country.
He went on to say Beckenridge wrote several texts to his friends saying goodbye yet didn’t send a text to his “very best friend”.
Templeman said the family believed someone might have helped the pair escape and knew about Beckenridge’s plan all along.
Templeman said used tea bags and a toothbrush left at the scene would ensure police found the pair’s DNA there.
He also questioned why a toothbrush would be left at the scene when a bag of toiletries was found washed ashore.
John Beckenridge's car was found at the bottom of an 88m cliff near Curio Bay. Photo / Otago Daily Times
Swab testing and further examinations of the site revealed a plaster with Mike’s fingerprints on it as well as prints of a shoe belonging to Beckenridge, which would later wash ashore in the Curio Bay area.
Templeman said the stake could be used to indicate where Beckenreidge needed to jump out of the vehicle before it went off the cliff as well as measuring where the vehicle would be sure to go into the water.
He said if the vehicle landed on the beach or rocks it would have been found relatively quickly, leading police to find no bodies in the car.
Templeman also noted a wheel from the vehicle washed ashore, despite being relatively heavy, yet no bodies had.
He said there was no evidence of Beckenridge and Mike leaving the vehicle because Beckenridge had taken extraordinary care to ensure his plan would work.
The family believed Beckenridge gained sympathy from someone by making himself out to be the victim to gain their help with his escape, Templeman claimed.
Senior Constable Kenneth Patterson, who works with the Serious Investigation Crash Unit, said a person would not have been able to jump out of the moving car without going over the cliff’s edge.
Patterson examined the clifftop scene where Beckenridge’s vehicle plummeted roughly 80m into the water, particularly focusing on the tyre marks left in the grass.
He calculated Beckenridge’s vehicle was travelling at a minimum speed of 45km/h. At this speed, a vehicle was travelling at 12.5m per second, he said.
“I concluded that a person could not have got out of the motor vehicle and stopped prior to the cliff’s edge.”
Patterson said a person would have to push open the door and push themselves out of the vehicle with enough force as well as being able to stop before going over the cliff’s edge, something he didn’t think was possible.
Templeman asked Patterson if it was possible for someone to fix a piece of wood or something similar onto the accelerator, holding it down so there was no need for someone to be in the vehicle while it travelled towards the edge of the cliff.
However, Patterson noted the terrain was quite bumpy so if something was holding the accelerator down it could have come off, stating: “It’s all speculative.”
Beckenridge met Mike’s mother, from China, in 2006. Lu’s parents were raising Mike at the time.
The pair later moved with Mike to Queenstown. Their relationship ended in 2014. Shortly after that, Lu moved to Invercargill.
In February 2015, the Queenstown Family Court made an order that Lu should have care of Mike.
He told Beckenridge he was intentionally misbehaving in order to return to his stepfather’s care and that he had also called the police, claiming his mother had assaulted him in the hope he would be sent back to Queenstown.
To date, police have had 60 suspected sightings of the Beckenridges or their vehicle, some of which have been deemed unlikely or eliminated.
