'Chilling' kidnapper let parents think baby taken

Konan left, with parents Harley Boyte and Kimberly Jamieson and sister Kylah. Photo / Christine Cornege

Tequila Caroline Matekohi-Samuels tragically lost her baby during pregnancy. So instead, the 18-year-old kidnapped someone else's baby.

Leading up to the October 31, 2014 kidnapping, the South Auckland beneficiary carried on a ruse to family and friends that she was still in fact pregnant.

The day before, she drove her brother and the brother of Kimberly Jamieson - mother of 8-week-old Konan Boyte - down to Hamilton for a catch-up. They stayed the night at the parents' Killarney Rd, Frankton unit.

But Harley Boyte, Konan's father, told the Herald yesterday that Matekohi-Samuels behaved strangely the whole time and kept insisting on seeing Konan.

Tequila Caroline Matekohi-Samuels. Photo / Christine Cornege

"I got up at 4am to go to the toilet and she was up ... She said she thought she heard Konan cry, I was like 'nah, he's all good, I didn't hear him cry'."

Just after midday, Mr Boyte said Matekohi-Samuels said she was going to the toilet and shut the door that closes the lounge off from the rest of the unit, took Konan from his cot and drove him to a friend's house.

Once there, she said she needed to go to a Winz appointment and left. However, her friends were surprised by her lack of preparedness for the baby. Instead, she drove back to the Killarney Rd flat.

Mr Boyte said they didn't realise until after Konan had been kidnapped that Matekohi-Samuels had taken freshly made bottles of formula, and formula out of the cupboard.

Matekohi-Samuels was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court yesterday to four and a half months' home detention for the kidnapping. She received an additional 150 hours' community work for four social media dishonesty charges - selling items that she didn't have - while on bail for the kidnapping charges.

The couple, along with Konan's grandmother, Margaret Boyte, were upset that Matekohi-Samuels wasn't jailed.

Judge Emma Smith said it seemed appearing in court had no effect on her behaviour and described her kidnapping actions as "chilling".

The judge was shocked that rather than alleviate the parents' distress, she had led them to believe their baby had gone "when you knew where baby was at all times".