Lachie Jones inquest: Former US detective says crime scene staged to look like accident

Lachlan Jones, 3, was found dead in an oxidation pond in Gore, January 2019.

By RNZ

• Retired Florida crime scene investigator Karen Smith says Lachlan Jones was dead before being placed in a Gore sewage pond.
• The inquest into the 3-year-old’s death entered its second phase this week after a three-week hearing in May.
• Smith says a third party placed Lachlan in the pond and then staged the scene to look like an accident.

A former American detective who reviewed the investigations into Lachlan Jones’ death says the scene of the child’s death appeared staged.

The 3-year-old’s body was found in a Gore sewage pond in January 2019.

Retired Florida crime scene investigator Karen Smith told the second-phase inquest into the boy’s death that she believed he was placed into the oxidation pond after death and the scene was staged to look like an accident.

Smith became involved in the case through her friendship with psychic Kelvin Cruickshank.

Two police investigations have found Lachlan accidentally drowned.

His father, Paul Jones, disputed that and had unanswered questions about his son’s death.

During the three-week, first-phase inquest in May, Jones’ lawyer Max Simpkins advanced the theory Lachlan’s mother Michelle Officer and her two older sons killed the boy before storing his body in a freezer and then dumping it in the sewage pond.

Several experts on pathology had told the inquest there was no evidence of Lachlan’s body being frozen.

The pathologist who initially determined drowning as the cause of death walked back that finding at May’s inquest. Another pathologist told the inquest this week the death was unascertained and a third said it was more probable than not Lachlan had drowned.

Smith took aim at New Zealand Police in her review of the case.

Investigators quickly assumed Lachlan accidentally drowned and did not test any other theory, she said.

Investigators were incurious, credulous and careless in their work, and the evidence of key witnesses contained multiple red flags and inconsistencies, Smith said.

“I doubt that much of what I’ve stated in my brief of evidence comes as a surprise to the experienced investigators in this case. They’re clearly qualified to investigate a child death to the level of a homicide until proven otherwise,” Smith told the coroner.

“One final question remains – why wasn’t that done for Lachlan Jones?”

Under questioning from lawyer for police Robin Bates, it emerged she was introduced to the case about two years ago by Kelvin Cruickshank.

Cruickshank is a New Zealand psychic, who claims to be able to communicate with the dead.

He was a regular on the controversial television show Sensing Murder.

“In 2016 he flew out to Los Angeles to film a television show,” Smith told the coroner.

“We were cast in the same television show together and became friends. We did some investigating together. It was quite interesting, I have been a little flummoxed by some of things that have came along – and I am under a non-disclosure agreement, so I can’t describe too many of the details of the show. But we kept in touch.”

He provided some details of Lachlan’s death, and Smith agreed it raised questions about the circumstances of the boy’s death and the quality of the police work that led to the determination of accidental drowning.

Smith will continue giving evidence to the inquest this afternoon.

- RNZ