Latest news with #MichaelTamatea
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Whanau seek answers in Levin death
crime police 7:44 am today The whanau of a Levin man who died in February at a beach near the lower North Island town believe one woman knows more about what happened to him than she's letting on. Police say the death of 34-year-old Michael Joseph Tamatea, whose body was found in a pond at Hokio Beach, was not suspicious. Lauren Crimp has more.
RNZ News
14 hours ago
- RNZ News
What happened to Mikey? Mystery surrounds his final moments
Rumours and speculation have been swirling throughout a small lower North Island town after 34-year-old Michael Tamatea was found dead four months ago. His whānau told Lauren Crimp they believe people know more than they are letting on about the lead up to his death at Hokio Beach near Levin, and they are determined to get to the bottom of it. Michael Tamatea - known as Mikey - was cooking at a Levin restaurant one February evening - and 12 hours later he was found dead in a pond, at a beach 15 minutes' drive away . Mikey's whānau believe one woman knows more about what happened before he died four months ago - and they do not believe she has told police the full story. RNZ has chosen not to report the woman's name. Attempts to contact her have been unsuccessful. The woman and Mikey had both been drinking - separately - at Levin's Oxford Hotel on the Wednesday night before he died, Mikey's sister Sarah Tamatea told RNZ. She said that woman would later tell police she had driven Mikey the 10km to Hokio Beach, where he was found dead early the next morning. RNZ asked police a raft of questions, but they declined to comment other than to say they did not believe Mikey's death was suspicious, and the case is with the coroner. According to the Oxford's CCTV footage, the pair were not together at the pub, Sarah said. Mikey Tamatea's family believe a woman drove him to Hokio beach just hours before he died. Photo: RNZ She has pored over that footage. RNZ has viewed some of it. The footage RNZ saw showed from about 1.07am, the woman was arguing with a man she was playing pool with. A staff member told RNZ as the argument continued they decided to "call it" and tell them it was time to go. It was closing time, anyway. At 1.10am the woman put her bag over her shoulder, threw a pool cue across a table, and left. As she walked out the door, Mikey entered that area of the pub. At 1.12am he is seen chatting outside with a staff member for a few minutes. The staff member told RNZ they offered him a ride home, which he declined. RNZ saw footage of Mikey walking up and down Levin's main drag, Oxford Street, near the pub and into the median strip. He wove a little and seemed slightly unsteady. But the staff member told RNZ that was not strange, because he had an unusual way of moving anyway. He had been drinking but was not "legless", they said. The woman who had been playing pool later picked Mikey up, Sarah said. Mikey Tamatea's mother Lucilla Kerehoma and sister Sarah Tamatea say life is not the same since his death four months ago. Photo: RNZ Her memory of the CCTV footage was that the car drove back and forth past Mikey a few times before stopping near him. But the staff member said it showed the car driving past on the other side of the road, and doing a u-turn to pull up near him. RNZ has not seen that footage. Sarah and the staff member agreed it showed the car pulling over near Mikey. They said the footage did not show him getting in the car, because it was too dark to see. But Sarah said the police told her the woman admitted taking Mikey to Hokio Beach, and that CCTV showed the pair at McDonald's before driving out to the beach. The woman made a statement to police three days after Mikey's death, Sarah said. Police told her what that contained, she said. RNZ put a number of detailed questions to police, and requested an interview, but they declined to make any further comment. Sarah said the woman told the police she had taken Mikey to Hokio Beach, and they had parked up on a flat sandy area about 100 metres back from the shoreline, near a small tidal pool of water, where Mikey's body was later found. The woman told police she felt unsafe because Mikey was drunk, and hitting on her, Sarah said. So she pulled him - a skinny, but nearly 6ft tall man - from the passenger side of her Suzuki Swift, across the centre console, through the driver's side and on to the grass, Sarah said. "How the heck do you do that?" Mikey had no bruising on his body, Sarah said. "When we went to go formally identify our brother, he was beautiful... looked like he was honestly sleeping." Sarah said her whānau had borrowed a friend's Swift and tried to replicate what the woman claimed happened. "We have tried this numerous times, numerous people, different shapes and sizes and everyone single one of us ended up with a bruise, or being sore, or said 'nah, stop, that's enough'." Mikey Tamatea's body was found at Hokio Beach. Photo: RNZ The woman then told police once she had pulled Mikey from the car she drove about 100 metres further down the sandy path, then got stuck, and walked on to the beach to find help, Sarah said. Around the corner of the hilly dunes, she found a ute and rapped on the window to ask the two occupants for a tow. RNZ has chosen not to name those men. Sarah said one of the men told Sarah he helped the woman about 3am. RNZ's attempts to contact that man have been unsuccessful. That man had since put Mikey's mum Lucilla in their ute and showed her where they had been parked, and where they towed the woman's car. Sarah said the man told her he and his friend drove out of the beach to get a tow rope, returned, and pulled the Suzuki Swift back past the water where Mikey's body was found, to a flat patch of grass about 40 metres away, said Sarah. They told her they did not see Mikey, she said. The woman then slept the night there in her car, Sarah said. Sarah questioned if the woman feared Mikey because he was hitting on her, why she had driven further down the beach that night, rather than back out the exit - and why she had stayed the night so close to where she had left Mikey. "Not only that, when my brother was found the next morning, she was still parked up at the beach when the police arrived," Sarah said the police told her. "They were pulling my brother from the water, and her vehicle was still there. "She drove away while my brother was being removed from the water, and she did not once, at that point, say she knew who the tūpāpaku (body) was, or that she was there, or any part of the reason that my brother was in that water. And she drove off." It was three days before the woman contacted police to make a statement, Sarah said she was told. Sarah and her whānau think the woman knew more about Mikey's death than she was letting on, as did the two men in the ute. Sarah said while she believed what the police told her whānau - that Mikey accidentally drowned, but that the official cause of death would be determined by the coroner - she did not believe parts of the woman's story stacked up. Police said while they understood Mikey's whānau had questions, they did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Mikey Tamatea's death. Photo: RNZ "If any new information is received in relation to his death, Police will assess that information and progress as appropriate," they said. "The matter is now with the coroner to determine the cause of Michael's death, which police continue to assist with in an information-gathering capacity." A Coroners Court spokesperson confirmed the coroner had opened an inquiry into Mikey's death. Inquiries can vary in length, with some taking several years, they said. Mikey's whānau did not want to wait that long for closure. Sarah said they had turned into "super sleuths" searching for answers. "And I make no apologies for that." Life is not the same for Mikey's whānau. Sarah says she and her siblings are coping in different ways, and they have at times become fragmented by rifts fuelled by local speculation about what happened the night he died. The pain is evident in Sarah and Lucilla's faces, and in their tears. When Mikey died, Lucilla was coming to the end of her cancer treatment. She had already buried one child, along with her husband and stepson. "How much more can a person take? How much more pain does the family have to go through and our family have to suffer before we get answers and before we can start healing?" Lucilla said. "Every day I cry, and every day I look at that door ... that's why normally I sit his photos down there, and I talk to him while I watch TV and I keep thinking he's gonna walk through that door. "I just struggle to function, I struggle because I see my kids hurting, no mother should bury two children. "And I don't want anger and hatred coming from my kids because I don't want one of them to be hurt, I don't want any of my other children to get hurt, but I want to know why I've lost a second child." Sarah said she and her whānau would not give up on their search for answers about what events led up to her brother's death. "We're not going to stop fighting for this." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
A pub, a pond and a body: What happened to Mikey?
At 7.30pm one February evening, Michael Tamatea had just knocked off his shift cooking at a Levin restaurant and headed to the pub next door. Twelve hours later he was found dead in a pond at a beach 15 minutes' drive away. Police have declined to answer RNZ's specific questions, and say his death is not suspicious - but his whānau have told Lauren Crimp they think otherwise. Michael Joseph Tamatea - Mikey to most - was quite the character. "They called him 'By Crikey Mikey' because he did weird shit, but it was just his personality, he was just a weird kid," laughs his older sister Sarah Tamatea. He was known for his impromptu dances, anywhere, any time. "He didn't care if people thought he was weird, he was just him." The 34-year-old was no saint - a "pain in the arse" - but had a heart of gold, she said. He had two children and was the kind of uncle that would stop by and say: "I'm taking the kids to the park." Mikey was a beautiful cook, loved karaoke and poker. Photo: RNZ He was adventurous and moved around a lot. "He liked the bogan, wildchild, free spirit kind of life, so he would occasionally just pick up a van or a car that he owned and go, 'I'm off' and we never knew where he was going to. "He'd end up on a beach somewhere ringing us, 'eh, look, I'm having a campfire'." But he always came home. Until that February evening. Wednesday 19 February 2025 was a warm summer's day. Mikey headed to The Roadhouse Bar and Grill on Levin's main drag Oxford Street, where he worked as a chef. He was running late, having taken his new puppy to his brother's house to be looked after, so he grabbed his nephew's scooter to head to work, Sarah said. CCTV footage seen by RNZ showed Mikey in the kitchen that night. Do you know more? Email "He's dancing and flipping the bowls as he's cooking and stuff like that. So he was happy throughout the evening," Sarah said. His shift finished about 7.30pm, a staff member told RNZ. Photo: RNZ He wandered to the adjacent bar - The Oxford - where he joined in on a poker tournament, Sarah said. "He liked to think he was a great poker shark." He proved his claim that night, making it through to the finals, to be held in April. He would never make it. A cousin took Mikey's seat at the table, in his honour. Sarah said the pub's CCTV footage from that night - which she has since pored over - showed Mikey popping up to the bar for drinks, and outside to vape. RNZ has seen some of that footage. "He was just being Michael, having a beer and games with his boys. "He was happy, he was laughing, he was smiling," she said. Photo: RNZ The footage RNZ saw showed Mikey was the last person to leave the bar that night just after 1am, when staff were closing. A staff member - who RNZ agreed not to name - said they offered him a ride home, which he declined. "He said 'nah, nah it's all good, I'm okay', and he did a little happy dance," Sarah said. RNZ saw footage of Mikey walking up and down Oxford Street near the pub, and into the median strip. He wove a little, and seemed slightly unsteady. But the staff member told RNZ that was how he usually moved. They said he had been drinking, but was not "legless". Mikey can be seen taking off his t-shirt and tucking it into the back of his pants, leaving him just wearing a singlet - it was a warm evening. But his cap stayed on. "Michael, no matter what state he's in, never, ever, ever is without a hat," Sarah said. "He's got a receding hairline and he hated it," her mum Lucilla Kerehoma added. "He dreaded his hair so that, you know, [it] looked like he had lots of hair, but he was going bald." Sarah and the staff member said a Suzuki Swift drove past Mikey before stopping near him for nearly five minutes. RNZ has not seen that footage. It was too dark to see Mikey or the driver, they said. Photo: RNZ Sarah said the driver was a woman, who had been drinking at the same pub that night - but from the CCTV footage she had seen, there was no indication they had been together that night. The staff member agreed. RNZ has chosen not to name the woman. Sarah said the police told her Mikey got in the car, and the pair went to McDonald's. Police told her CCTV showed them there at 1.36am and he was still wearing his cap, she said. "And that was the last CCTV footage anybody's got of Michael." Police said the woman drove Mikey to Hokio Beach, Sarah said. After that, events are murky. "That's where so many questions, and so many stories, and a lot of shit has happened," Sarah said. "And that's where we need the clarity." Mikey's body was found by a dog walker at Hokio Beach at about 7.30am on Thursday, 20 February. He was in a near-stagnant pool of water, Sarah said. Sarah and her mother took RNZ to the spot. It is about 100 metres back from the shoreline, just off a sandy path people drive on to reach the beach. The pool of water is tidal, and two small streams trickle into it. It is below knee deep. Police told Mikey's whānau he died by accidental drowning, and that they believed there was no suspicious circumstances, Sarah said. But she said the police had since told them the coroner would make the final ruling on the cause of Mikey's death. A Coroners Court spokesperson confirmed the coroner had opened an inquiry into Mikey's death. Inquiries can vary in length, with some taking several years, they said. Mikey's mum and sister believed drowning was the "direct" cause of his death - but they have other questions. They knew he had been drinking, but they believed drugs may have been involved. The t-shirt and cap he was wearing that night have never been found. "The first thing we noticed [identifying his body] was 'where's his hat? We can see his hair'," said Sarah. It is just one of many questions her whānau have. More crop up as time wears on. They believe the woman who they say took Mikey to the beach knows more than she has told police. Police said while they understood Mikey's grieving whānau would have "many questions", they did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. But they said they would assess any new information they received and "progress as appropriate". "The matter is now with the coroner to determine the cause of Michael's death, which police continue to assist with in an information-gathering capacity." RNZ put a number of detailed questions to police, and requested an interview, but they declined to make any further comment. The day after Mikey's death, the police put out a statement asking to speak to anyone who was in the area between midnight and 2am on Thursday, 20 February. In particular, they wanted to speak to two men who helped a woman by towing her car after it was stuck on the beach. "While we have no reason to believe these men had any involvement in the man's death, we are eager to speak to them as we believe they may have valuable information to share." Sarah said the men and the woman have spoken to police. Rumour and speculation swirls through the small town of Levin, and on social media. Mikey's mum and siblings get stopped in the street - people are sorry, they ask what happened, they say they heard this or that, they know more and have proof but don't want to 'narc'. "All it's doing is stoking anger and resentment and hostility," Sarah said. "It's actually hindering us from moving forward because that piece of information that you [the people on the street] have said is just ticking over, and ticking over, and ticking over and then we start thinking of the what ifs, how comes, or whatever. "There's just too many rumours, too many lies." RNZ has more on this story to come. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
