A young boy with a history of leaving his house to explore was watching a movie in his bedroom while his mother had a shower.
But, as Maia DeLaCroix was getting out of the shower, she heard the door to their farmhouse, in Tiniroto, about 40 minutes south of Gisborne, opening.
His mother immediately knew it was her 5-year-old son, Khyzah Tawhai Raukaponga DeLaCroix, who was non-verbal autistic, and raced out after him.
She estimated she was one minute behind him.
But tragically, Khyzah was not found for about another 24 hours, when the national dive squad located his body in a large farm pond between the family’s house and their shed.
Now, a coroner who has examined his death has flagged issues with the safety concerns raised around Khyzah two months before his death in August last year, not being proactively addressed.
Khyzah had been referred to Your Way | Kia Roha, a service contracted by the Ministry of Social Development Disability Support Services, which provides needs assessment and service coordination.
According to findings published today by Coroner Meenal Duggal, DeLaCroix had raised concerns with the service about her son’s ability to climb and run away quickly, and asked for safety locks to be installed on their windows and doors.
She had also asked for fencing at the school he was to attend for his safety.
DeLaCroix was told to seek a home safety assessment from the neurodevelopmental therapist.
“It is concerning that Ms DeLaCroix’s concerns about Khyzah’s ability to get out of the house were not proactively addressed,” Coroner Duggal wrote.
“This raised immediate safety concerns which in my view required urgent action.
“In this case, that may have involved direct contact with the neurodevelopmental therapist and her employer, the Child Development Service.”
Coroner Duggal found that DeLaCroix was very busy with Khyzah, who required assistance with all his daily care, as well as two younger children.
She also lived in a rural community, which the coroner said made it difficult for her to attend appointments.
“In these circumstances, safety concerns raised by her should have been actively addressed by Kia Roha.”
Your Way | Kia Roha told NZME that the loss of a child was an unimaginable tragedy, and its thoughts and deepest condolences were with Khyzah’s whānau.
The service recognised that a more proactive approach could have provided additional support to the whānau.
According to the findings, Khyzah had only recently been diagnosed with autism and lacked safety awareness.
He liked to leave the house to explore and was attracted to water as well as a shed where he liked to play. On other occasions, he had made his way to the main road.
On August 11, last year, he was at home with his mother and younger siblings, while his father, Hamuera Tuhoro-Keefe, was working at another farm.
Around 2pm, DeLaCroix had a shower, and as she got out, she heard their farmhouse door opening.
She thought it was Khyzah, as the other children could not open that door.
DeLaCroix searched the shed, calling out to Khyzah as she went, and also checked the main road, but could not find him.
She phoned the police at 4pm and a search operation involving Land Search and Rescue commenced at 5.30pm.
By this time, Khyzah’s father and his employer had searched a 400m radius of the property, including all water holes, and about 30 friends, family and community members had arrived at the property, some travelling hours to help with the search.
The search was stopped around 1am and recommenced the following day.
Around 3.40pm, the dive squad found Khyzah’s body in the pond, which was about 180m from the house and covered in significant green algae.
A Givealittle fundraiser created following Khyzah’s death said his whānau had been left devastated and heartbroken.
“Khyzah was a happy little soul and he was such a beautiful little man. The loss of this cherished boy has left a big hole in everyone’s hearts and he will be so missed,” the page, which raised more than $19,000, stated.
NZME previously reported that Khyzah’s death sent shockwaves through the rural community.
“The tears flowed,” said one Tiniroto resident – who didn’t want to be named – when they were told Khyzah’s body had been found.
“This is an utter tragedy. We’re a small community. We pretty much all know each other very well. When one of us goes through hurt, we all feel that hurt.”
Another told NZME: “I know the family and I know of the boy.
“It is too hard to talk about at the moment. It is just too sad.”
In the findings, Coroner Duggal accepted a forensic pathologist’s advice that Khyzah had drowned and ruled it was accidental.
Police had advised the coroner that there were several easily accessible routes from the house, which was fenced, to the pond, about a two-minute walk away.
On the safety concerns raised by Khyzah’s mother, the coroner found that families of children with health or disability issues were frequently required to deal with multiple agencies and practitioners.
“Recurring themes from health and disability consumers and their families is that services are not ‘joined up’, responsibility between services is not clear and that they are asked to repeat their concerns to multiple providers.
“I accept that Kia Roha was an assessment service and not able to directly provide services such as a safety assessment to Khyzah.
“However, Kia Roha’s agreement with the Ministry of Social Development specified that immediate safety concerns were to be proactively addressed with urgency, including interim mitigations, escalation and interagency coordination.”
According to the findings, Your Way | Kia Roha accepted that its response to DeLaCroix’s safety concerns was not sufficiently prompt or proactive, but said that was not due to systemic issues, or a lack of training or policy.
However, the organisation has since strengthened compliance by formalising risk management, clarifying responsibilities, improving training, adding supervisory checks, and enhancing inter-agency coordination, which the coroner endorsed.
The coroner directed that the findings be shared with Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People, so the lessons from the inquiry can be used to inform services.
Megan Thomas, chief executive of Your Way | Kia Roha, acknowledged the coroner’s findings, highlighting that it recognised the organisation’s position that it had robust systems and processes in place to identify and respond to risks, and endorsed the steps it has taken to continue to strengthen those safeguards and staff training.
“However, in this circumstance, we recognise that a more proactive approach - particularly involving Child Development Services to assess the home environment - could have provided additional support,” Thomas told NZME.
“We remain committed to learning from this experience and to continually improving our processes, so that families receive the most responsive and coordinated care possible.
“Once again, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Khyzah’s whānau.”
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 and is currently an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.