Chasing Ghosts - Below the Surface: What happened to Goy Thongsi?

Bua-Ngoen 'Goy' Thongsi was diving for crayfish in North Canterbury when she sank below the water, never to resurface alive. Photo / Supplied

Goy Thongsi died on a recreational scuba diving trip in North Canterbury in 2015, but what led to her death would remain a mystery not even the police or courts could determine.

Thongsi’s cause of death at the popular Christchurch dive site remains undetermined, despite three police investigations and a three-stage coronial inquest that summoned more questions than answers.

In Below the Surface, a new edition of the NZ Herald’s Chasing Ghosts true crime podcast, Open Justice reporter Hazel Osborne explores the circumstances of Thongsi’s death, and why there remain so many answers eight years later.

The four men who were out that day of the dive, fishing a customary permit of 50 crayfish for a tangi, were integral witnesses to Coroner Brigitte Windley when she opened an inquest into Thongsi’s death in 2018.

Their evidence, however, would create a murky narrative of what really happened that day on the boat, when skipper David Avei was alleged to have said Thongsi “sank like a stone”.

Below the ominous swell of Motunau in North Canterbury, Thongsi would remain on the sea floor for two days while the police national dive squad searched for her body.

She was found just over 60m from where she was last seen alive, her body so badly ravaged by sealife that no cause of death could be determined by the pathologist.

Thongsi was beloved by the Thai and Buddhist community, who gathered around her body for three days and nights at the temple they spent most Sundays together.

Eight years on and another anniversary of her death has passed. Thongsi was beloved by her community, she worked hard, she lived the life she wanted.

Loved ones, including her best friend Yuawari Somnuk, still have no answers.

Has there been justice for Thongsi? What really happened out on the boat that day?

Listen to the first episode of Chasing Ghosts - Below the Surface below, looking into who Goy was, her community around her, the lead-up to the dive and the culture of Motunau, a dive site that can turn in an instant.

Follow Chasing Ghosts on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Part two of Below the Surface will be released on Saturday 25 February.