Miserable young life and miserable death

The young Chinese girl who disappeared from Mt Roskill in May last year had been living a miserable and lonely life since moving to New Zealand and may have committed suicide, an inquest heard yesterday.

The body of 12-year-old Chong Liu washed up on Pollok Beach, in the Manukau Harbour, 16 days after she vanished in May last year.

There was an extensive police inquiry and speculation remains as to whether she was murdered, kidnapped or simply fell into the harbour.

But although coroner Mate Frankovich agreed that her life must have been "intolerable," he excluded suicide as a cause of death because it could not be confirmed. Instead, he ruled that Chong died of "unascertainable causes" that most likely resulted in her drowning.

The inquest heard that her family life since emigrating was miserable.

She was raised predominantly by her mother and grandparents in China but came to live in New Zealand in December 1998 with her father, Zheng Wei Liu, and her new stepmother, as part of her parents' divorce settlement.

A child psychologist said the girl lived in a household where "parental neglect, emotional abuse, conflict and dysfunction were evident."

She would have felt unwanted despite her father's love, and additional risk factors such as cultural alienation, loneliness, inability to communicate and shyness could have pushed her to commit suicide.

Chong was left to fend for herself when her father was out and other household members - her stepmother, stepmother's sister, and step-grandmother - hardly spoke to her. She often ate meals alone in her room and was aware her father and pregnant stepmother were considering placing her in a home-stay.

She struggled at school, had only two friends who could speak Mandarin and repeatedly said she missed her mother.

Mr Frankovich said the way other family members treated Chong could have made her feel "unworthy of parental love."

Although Auckland's Chinese community and Chong's mother, Li-Li Li, were convinced that foul play was involved, an autopsy showed no signs of injuries or trauma.

Police had conducted a peer review in response to the concerns. The coroner also praised what he described as a thorough and professional inquiry accounting for $1 million of police hours.