John Beckenridge case: Coroner says missing man and stepson dead; staging and escape theory ‘implausible’

A coroner has dismissed claims that Southland man John Beckenridge staged his own death and escaped overseas with his stepson, ruling it is more likely than not that the pair died when their vehicle plunged off a cliff 11 years ago.  In March 2015, Beckenridge, a Swedish-born helicopter pilot, broke a court order by collecting his then 11-year-old stepson Mike Zhao-Beckenridge from his Invercargill school.  A week later, Beckenridge’s 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off a cliff near Curio Bay, in Southland.  John Beckenridge (left) disappeared with his step-son Mike Zhao-Beckenridge (right) in March 2015.  When police recovered the vehicle, there were no bodies. Beckenridge and Mike have been missing ever since.  Mike’s mother, Fiona Lu, is convinced her son is alive and that Beckenridge, her former partner, staged the pair’s deaths.  She claims he did this after she moved Mike from Beckenridge’s Queenstown home to Invercargill with her new partner, Peter Russell.  In 2023, Coroner Marcus Elliott held an inquest into the pair’s disappearance.  After new evidence came to light in June 2024, Coroner Elliott called for a new hearing to assess new information, including that a friend of Beckenridge allegedly told people after the pair vanished: “We helped him out, and they are alive.”  Coroner Elliott’s decision can now be published.  “The police position is that on March 20, 2015, Mr Beckenridge drove the vehicle off the cliff with Mike in it. They describe it as a case of murder/suicide,” he said.  Coroner Marcus Elliott. Photo / George Heard  “Ms Lu believes that Mr Beckenridge staged their deaths and that he and Mike left New Zealand. Ms Lu believes that they are still alive.  “I have concluded that it is more likely than not that ... Mr Beckenridge drove his vehicle off the cliff. Mike was in the vehicle.  “Mr Beckenridge and Mike died due to the injuries they sustained when the vehicle crashed into the sea. Their bodies were washed away and have not been found.”  Police officer drove steel spikes into the Southland clifftop to denote where the tyre marks end and John Beckenridge's vehicle sailed off the edge of the cliff. Photo / Kurt Bayer  Coroner Elliott said any other theories about what happened to the pair are “implausible”.  He said all of the information put before him – in particular the evidence from the cliff-top scene, which included expert evidence – was “sufficiently strong to conclude that it is more likely than not” that Beckenridge drove the vehicle off the cliff.  “The staging and escape theory is implausible on the evidence,” he said.  “Mr Beckenridge’s actions illustrate that he either did not have, or did not display, the characteristics of the intelligent, resourceful, rational and well-prepared criminal which Ms Lu and [her partner] Mr Russell believe him to be.  “His actions were in many respects contrary to what would be expected if a man with those characteristics planned to stage two deaths and depart New Zealand with an 11-year-old.  “The planning was poor, even farcical, the preparation negligible and rudimentary.”  Coroner Elliott said Beckenridge was “deeply affected by losing the control over” Lu and Mike, which he “so craved and cultivated”.  “The Family Court had ordered that Ms Lu would have sole care of Mike,” he explained.  Mike Zhao-Beckenridge, who vanished with his stepfather in 2015.  “He had no employment, and his financial position was poor. His communications show that he was upset about his circumstances in the period before he went missing. He felt that his life was ‘no good’, that it was falling apart, and there was no purpose to it.”  In his own words, Beckenridge had said he had “been in a lot of bad stuff over the years” but the situation in the lead-up to his disappearance was “beyond repair”.  “Olympus, he said, had fallen,” Coroner Elli...

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