Anna Leask: NZ Herald senior crime reporter on a witness retracting an earlier claim about the Beckenridge case

There's another twist in the puzzling disappearance of John and Mike Beckenridge - missing from Southland since 2015.

During a Coronial hearing in Christchurch today, a witness retracted his earlier claim his cousin had told him he'd helped the pair flee.

The father and stepson's car was found in wild sea near the Catlins - below an 88-metre cliff, with no bodies. 

Herald reporter Anna Leask says the witness made a complete turnaround  after being shown his police statement.

"He read through his statement and said - that's what the police have, in this document, that I didn't say it and I never said that and he didn't say this to me."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon, two days and two twists in the case
of the disappearance of John Beckenridge and his step son
Mike Shoal Beckenridge. Now, what's been called and what has
been called a complete turnaround. A man who claimed that
his cousin told him that actually helped the beck and
Ridges escape has now retracted his allegation altogether. Analyst because
a senior crime reporter for the Heroine she's been at
the hearing, Anna, hello, Hello, what happened? How did he

(00:22):
retract it?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, we got to court this morning and apparently he
was shown his police statement which he was to read
in court before he was sort of questioned by the
different parties and he said, oh, no, I didn't say that.
That's wrong. So we had to come into court and
he read through his statement and then said, you know,
that's what the police have in this document, but I

(00:44):
didn't say it and I never said that, and he
didn't say.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
This to me.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know, I signed my police statement, I signed the
typed version, but it's an anomaly. I didn't say it.
I didn't realize so that the Crown described it as
complete turnaround, and yeah, he then retracted all the allegations
he'd made against his cousin, his cousin's wife and other
members of the community.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Is this plausible? I mean, was this the first Is
this the first time he's actually realized what his statement says, Well, it.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Might have been the first time he's read it in
a while. He would have obviously had to sign, and
he said in court he signed the handwritten statement that
police took from him at his home. He also signs
the typed version. So you know why he didn't notice
that these these things were in it that he apparently
didn't say. He said that the cops were at his
house for four or five hours. It became a social occasion.

(01:42):
They were talking about theories and what could have happened,
and he just the word he used was it was
an anomaly that he didn't notice. The police had recorded
him as saying that. So you know the flip side, obviously,
is the Crown put to him that he was He
was pretty disgruntled. His cousin had bought the family farm.
He thought he was entitled to some of it. He

(02:04):
wanted his his chunk of it. And this was you know,
him him bringing this to the police into court was
motivated by him wanting, you know, part of that family property.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay, So the cousin who he's implicated here, he also
spoke to the inquest today, did.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
He Yeah, Look, he said that he has never met
Mike Beckenridge or sorry John and Mike Beckenridge. He's never
he'd never heard of them or seen photos of them.
Until it was in the media. He considered that he
probably did have a phone call with his cousin and
he very may well have said something to the effect
of ver Okay. Now, now that was discussed in court today,

(02:47):
and this this man is he's a pastor in a church,
and it was sort of, you know, all agreed that
maybe what he was meaning was that wherever they are,
off the cliff or otherwise, therew God either way, and
so everybody agreed that if anything was said, that might
have been sort of the flavor of it. But he,
you know, he said to his cousin, I forgive you.

(03:09):
I think you've been motivated because you want part of
the farm. You know, I forgive you, but I don't
want anything more to do with you. So it was
quite the quite the eventful morning in court.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, wild hey, Anna, thanks very much, appreciate it, analyask
the Herald Senior crime reporter For more from Heather Duplessy
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