Lachie Jones inquest: Grandfather tells of mother’s plan to leave toddler out of will

By RNZ

Lachlan Jones’ grandfather Graham Jones has claimed the three-year-old’s mother told him she would not leave anything for Lachlan in her will if she died.

Lachlan was found in a council sewage pond just over a kilometre from his home in January 2019.

Two police investigations found Lachlan accidentally drowned but his father Paul Jones disputes that version of events.

An inquest into Lachlan’s death has been told of accusations from Paul Jones’ lawyer, Max Simpkins, that Lachlan’s mother Michelle Officer and her two older sons killed the boy, before storing his body in a freezer and then dumping it into the sewage pond.

Paul Jones’ father, Graham Jones, said he had no issues with Officer until one day she said, if she died, Lachlan would not be in her will, and only her two older sons would receive everything.

Officer was not a good mother, Graham said.

“Whenever Lachie would come into our home with Michelle, the first thing he would want is food,” Graham said.

“The same when Michelle came – we’d feed her and she would always go back for seconds.”

When pressed on whether he was suggesting Officer neglected her son, he responded: “I’m not saying that – I’m just saying that he loved his food and always enjoyed that when he came to our place”.

But when asked directly by Officer’s lawyer Beatrix Woodhouse if she was a good mother, Graham responded no.

He was aware Officer had a protection order against Paul Jones, but he said his son was a good father.

“I know who Lachie would rather live with,” Graham said.

On the night of Lachlan’s death, Graham felt the boy’s body following his death.

Lachlan felt “absolutely frozen”, he said.

He conceded he could not be sure of what time that occurred, but under questioning accepted it might have been after midnight.

Lachlan’s body was found at 11.15pm and went missing about two hours earlier.

“He was frozen, he was frozen,” Graham said.

“That boy was frozen when I felt him. I felt him and his skin wouldn’t bend or tuck in at all. He was absolutely frozen and there’s only one other person who I’ve seen like that and that was my wife, when she passed away.”

Graham said he felt his wife’s body at the funeral home a couple of days after her death, but her and Lachlan’s bodies felt “identical, very much so”.

Graham said following Lachlan’s death he walked the route police claimed the boy had taken to get to the sewage ponds and he did not believe the three-year-old could have taken the path through thistles and along stone paths.

“I don’t think Lachie is capable of walking that distance,” Graham said.