A grieving baby brother takes over

By SCOTT INGLIS

The four-year-old boy whose body was found in a creek 200m from his West Auckland home was the third child to die in the creek since 1993.

Navy divers found the body of Christian Alfred-Crawford in a Huruhuru Creek rockpool. He had been missing since Monday afternoon.

A Waitakere City Council spokesman said Christian died despite fences and warning signs in the area.

Residents remain concerned and the council was investigating ways of making the area safer, but it was impossible to make every waterway safe.

"We've got 360-odd rivers and streams in the city and it's just impossible to fence them all," he said.

Christian enjoyed playing with his three-year-old brother Wiremu, and liked going down to the nearby Huruhuru Creek waterhole - a favourite swimming spot among children in the area - even though he was not allowed to.

On the last day of Christian's life, he had an early lunch of chocolate, cereal and potato chips, and was told to stay within the family's property at Woodside Rd, Lincoln.

Instead, he wandered off barefoot. His mother, Penelope Crawford, last saw him about 12.30 pm.

Shortly before 2 pm, Christian's two-year-old sister, Akenehi, who had apparently been with her brother, walked into the house and said he was at the waterhole in the Woodside Reserve.

Christian's father, Kelly Alfred, raced across the park and found the pink and purple bike his son had borrowed from a neighbour near a narrow track leading to the rockpool - but no sign of the boy.

After an hour-long search, the family rang the police and a search began, involving police search and rescue, ambulance and fire crews.

But as darkness closed in on Monday night, things looked grim. Sniffer dogs tracked Christian's scent to the rockpool, which varies in depth from 1.2m to about 3.6m.



Navy divers were brought in yesterday and found Christian's body just before 9.30 am.

Penelope Crawford and her family were told and went to the waterhole, before spending an hour with Christian in a tent set up nearby by the police.

As she slowly walked across the park towards home, the funeral director's wagon carrying Christian's body passed her on the grass.

Back at her house, the 39-year-old mother of three stood in the kitchen.

"I'd hoped that it wouldn't come to this," she said.

"I've lost my four-year-old son."

The others to drown in the Huruhuru Creek were Maria Enina Alofoe, aged 15 of Massey, and Reece Greene, 3, of Ranui.

Maria, who could not swim, drowned on New Year's Day, 1993, after she slipped and fell into a 5.5m-deep swimming hole.

Reece was swept down the rain-swollen creek after slipping into it while playing with other children nearby on September 5, 1996.