Hearing into disappearance of 11yo boy and his stepfather resumes
The inquiry into the disappearance of Mike Zhao-Beckenridge in the Catlins a decade ago resumes today.
Mike Zhao-Beckenridge. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A coroner's hearing was adjourned in 2023 after two weeks of evidence into the case of the missing 11-year-old and his stepfather, John Beckenridge, whose car was found after it plunged 90m off a cliff near Curio Bay.
No bodies were ever found and, while the police believe it to be a murder-suicide, Mike's mother, Fiona Lu, believes her son is still alive and the presumed deaths staged.
One News reported the hearing would resume today with fresh evidence from five new witnesses.
The new information to be presented at the Coroner's Court includes a further report from an expert who examined discharged items at the remote cliff top.
After Ms Lu and Mr Beckenridge separated, Mr Beckenridge, a Queenstown helicopter pilot, broke a court order and drove to Invercargill to pick up his stepson from school on March 13, 2015.
The boy was upset by a court order to live with his mother, and 20 emails to his stepfather were read out during the first stage of the hearing.
John Beckenridge. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
He said he hated his mother and "she f..... up my life so bad".
Mr Beckenridge's final text to the boy's mother was also read out.
"You have destroyed my life and Mike's. Me and Mike are leaving now on the Midnight Express 3 mins to departure. Bye my love and thanks for everything JB and MB [sic]."
Ms Lu said her ex-husband, who used four aliases, was capable of faking his death and disappearing.
A New Zealand woman on holiday in Gili Air Island in Indonesia contacted police to report seeing the boy and his stepfather together three months after the car was found submerged.
She told the coroner she was "100% sure" she had seen them.
Family private investigator Mark Templeman told Coroner Marcus Elliott that Ms Lu believed her son, who would now be 21, would contact her when he was no longer under the influence of his stepfather.
— APL
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
31-07-2025
- RNZ News
'Spying at unprecedented levels': $13.6b annual cost for Australia
By foreign affairs correspondent Stephen Dziedzic , ABC ASIO chief Mike Burgess has used a speech to warn of the costs of foreign espionage to Australia. Photo: ABC News/ Shaun Kingma Australia's domestic spy chief has used a major speech in Adelaide to warn foreign espionage is costing the nation at least A$12.5 billion (NZ$13.6b) a year, while revealing ASIO has disrupted 24 "major espionage and foreign interference" operations in the last three years alone. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has also confirmed that Australia expelled "a number" of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in 2022, whilst berating some public officials for "head-spinning" complacency about the threats posed by overseas intelligence agencies. Burgess has struck an increasingly urgent tone about the threats posed by foreign interference in recent years, but Thursday night's speech - delivered at the annual Hawke Lecture at the University of South Australia - is his most detailed account laying out the scale of the threat. The spy chief again listed China, Russia and Iran as three of the main nations behind espionage in Australia but said Australians would be "shocked" by the number of other countries that were also trying similar tactics. He said the 24 major operations disrupted over the past three years were "more than the previous eight years combined" and that strategic competition was driving a "relentless hunger for strategic advantage and an insatiable appetite for inside information". "Nation states are spying at unprecedented levels, with unprecedented sophistication," he said. "ASIO is seeing more Australians targeted - more aggressively - than ever before." He gave multiple examples, such as spies who "convinced a state bureaucrat to log into a database to obtain the names and addresses of individuals considered dissidents by a foreign regime" and a foreign intelligence service that "directed multiple agents and their family members to apply for Australian government jobs - including with the national security community - to get access to classified information". He also said foreign companies connected to intelligence services had "sought to buy access to sensitive personal data sets; sought to buy land near sensitive military sites; and sought to collaborate with researchers developing sensitive technologies". The spy chief also told a story about an overseas delegation visiting a "sensitive Australian horticultural facility" who snapped branches off a "rare and valuable variety of fruit tree" in order to steal them. "Almost certainly, the stolen plant material allowed scientists in the other country to reverse engineer and replicate two decades of Australian research and development," he said. Burgess also said that foreign spy agencies were taking an "unhealthy interest" in accessing military technology secrets shared through the AUKUS pact. "Foreign intelligence services are proactive, creative and opportunistic in their targeting of current and former defence employees: relentless cyber espionage, in-person targeting and technical collection," he said. "In recent years, for example, defence employees travelling overseas have been subjected to covert room searches, been approached at conferences by spies in disguise and given gifts containing surveillance devices. "Defence is alert to these threats and works closely with ASIO to counter them." Private investigator desk with top secret envelopes. Photo: 123RF Burgess didn't name any of the countries behind the new plots he identified, but released a new report that ASIO developed with the Australian Institute of Criminology, which tries to count the cost of espionage. He said while calculating the cost was "challenging", the report found espionage cost the Australian economy at least $12.5b in the 2023-2024 financial year - an estimate Burgess called "conservative" and which likely "significantly underestimates" the true cost of espionage. "Many entities do not know their secrets have been stolen, or do not realise they've been stolen by espionage, or do not report the theft," he said. The spy chief also once again took aim at businesses and officials who he suggested were complacent or deeply naive about the threat of espionage, saying he'd "lost count of the number of times senior officials and executives have privately downplayed the impacts of espionage". "I've watched corporate leaders literally shrug their shoulders when told their networks are compromised," he said. In unusually frank remarks, Burgess also heaped scorn on an unnamed Australian trade official. "Most recently, a trade official told ASIO there's no way the Chinese intelligence services would have any interest in his organisation's people and premises in China," he said. "All too often, we make it all too easy." Australian public servants are being too cavalier on sharing details about their work, Mike Burgess says. Photo: Shutter Speed/Unsplash And he once again rounded on Australian public servants who reveal details about their work online - including on professional networking sites - saying about 7000 of them "reference their work in the defence sector" and "close to 400 explicitly say they work on AUKUS". "Nearly two and a half thousand publicly boast about having a security clearance and 1300 claim to work in the national security community," he said. "While these numbers have fallen since I first raised the alarm two years ago, this still makes my head spin … surely these individuals, of all people, should understand the threat and recognise the risk? "I get that people need to market themselves but telling social media you hold a security clearance or work on a highly classified project is more than naive; it's recklessly inviting the attention of a foreign intelligence service." Burgess said that "thousands of Australian students, academics, politicians, business people, researchers, law enforcement officials and public servants at all levels of government" have been targeted for espionage through networking sites. "The vast majority resist, report or ignore the approaches," he said. "Unfortunately, though, some are sucked in and end up being used - recklessly or consciously - to gather information for a foreign country." -ABC
Otago Daily Times
23-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Murder on stage in Mosgiel
The Fire Station Theatre in Mosgiel will complete a trio of murder mystery spoofs by Peter Gordon with a production of Death by Fatal Murder, staged over the next two weekends. Directed by Alison Ayers and featuring Matt Brennan as Inspector Pratt, the play continues the chaotic story of the hapless detective as he struggles with another mystery. Pratt's record of crime detection at Bagshot House is not enviable. In his two previous visits the body count mounted disastrously as he looked on, helpless and hopeless. Now he's back and, as usual, chaos reigns supreme. The follow-up to Gordon's plays Murdered to Death, and Secondary Cause of Death, Death by Fatal Murder promises plenty of laughs. The show is staged from July 25-27, and August 1-3, with performances at 7pm, and 2pm Sunday matinees. — APL
Otago Daily Times
18-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Three arrested after routine bail check
PHOTO: ODT FILES Following their noses at a bail check led to Invercargill police sniffing out three arrests, drugs, drug paraphernalia and thousands of dollars in cash. Police said in a statement yesterday that officers were conducting a routine bail check at an Invercargill address shortly after midnight, and when an occupant of the address opened the door, officers were met with a strong smell of cannabis. A warrantless search was then initiated under the Search and Surveillance Act 2012. Police located drug utensils, a knuckleduster, small quantities of cannabis and methamphetamine and about $12,000 in cash. Southland area commander Inspector Mike Bowman said this was excellent work by his staff and proved the value of routine police work like bail checks. The three men — aged 28, 29 and 45 — have been arrested on driving, weapons and drug charges. Further inquiries are continuing. — APL
