Mother of Gore toddler Lachie Jones breaks silence, speaks of loss, heartbreak and accusations

On January 29, 2019, Lachie Jones was found dead in a Gore oxidation pond. His mother has now spoken publicly about the tragedy for the first time. Image / NZME

On January 29, 2019, Lachie Jones was found dead in an oxidation pond. In the five years since, Lachie’s memory has permeated the national consciousness. Two police investigations concluded Lachie drowned. His father Paul Jones does not accept the findings, and believes he was murdered. His mother, Michelle Officer, has borne the brunt of many accusations, and for the past five years has remained silent. She now tells her story for the first time.

It was the hottest night of the year when a frantic search for a missing toddler was under way in Gore.

Police, family, friends, and neighbours scrambled across the semi-rural area searching for Lachie Jones.

Lachie’s mother, Michelle Officer, collapsed in her living room when Senior Sergeant Cynthia Fairly told her her 3-year-old son had been found in a council oxidation pond, and was unable to be revived.

Officer remembers little about what happened next. Her voice shakes when she talks about that night. The weeks that followed were a blur, visitors came and went. People she hadn’t seen in years, some she had never met. She was prescribed sleeping pills. Her eldest son, Cameron, held her as she wept on her bed.

“[Lachie] was a part of me, and I knew that was the last time I’d breastfeed. It was a bond between me and Lachie ... My No 1 thing in life has always been to be a mother. That was my No 1 thing above anything,” she says.

Lachie Jones' body was found in an oxidation pond in Gore in January 2020.

Officer had no idea that many of the visitors in those early days would come to publicly scrutinise her actions. As Officer grieved at home with her close friends and family, a storm was brewing beyond her scope and control.

While Officer cemented her silence by declining multiple requests for interviews from journalists, the story of Lachie’s death grew larger, insinuations led to accusations levelled at Officer and her elder sons.

In a dedicated room in her home, she displays photos and keepsakes as a shrine for Lachie.

“My home is where I remember Lachie,” she says.

She remembers Lachie as a loving, active, and confident wee boy, much like his brothers when they were his age.

“He loved his role-play, and he loved his brothers, and he was very, very fun. He had us laughing all the time, the funny things he would say, and he had a very advanced vocabulary for his age. Instead of saying, ‘Yum, that’s nice,’ he’d go, ‘Oh, Mum, that’s just so scrumptious’.”

Lachie’s brothers Cameron and Johnny also loved spending time with him.

“They were great with caregiving, like changing nappies and feeding Lachie, and changing his clothes. Both of them were great at that. They had heaps of fun times, they used to laugh and laugh and have great fun. Lachie thought his big brothers were really fun, you could see how he would just light up.”

Officer told the Herald she was breaking her silence to dispel many of the misconceptions and accusations that had been levelled at her and her family.

“I trusted the process and the New Zealand justice system. That’s why I have remained silent ... I have grieved in a different way to Lachie’s father. I am a private person, I did not think it was necessary to share my life with the rest of the world.

“I loved having kids, and there’s no way I would do anything to any kid, and no way that [either of her sons] would ... I’m heartbroken.”

The day after Lachie’s death, one of the visitors to Officer’s home was then mayor of Gore, Tracy Hicks.

“I remember being across from him and thinking, ‘This is all your fault’,” Officer says. “I was angry, but I was trying to be polite ... I felt sorry for him.”

Later, Hicks would tell a journalist there was no obvious evidence of grief on that visit.

In 2023, Gore District Council was ordered to pay $55,000 to each of Lachie’s parents and to pay WorkSafe’s prosecution charges of more than $18,000, for failing to comply with a duty that exposed people to the risk of death or serious injury.

The day after Lachie’s death, a support person visited the home and tried to speak with Officer and Cameron and Johnny.

A worksheet indicating that the boys had dismissed the support person was presented as evidence in the inquest into Lachie’s death. Officer says they were blindsided when the interaction was used against them, and were simply uncomfortable discussing their grief with a stranger.

“I remember just wanting to grieve on my own. I was putting on a brave face for everyone, and I just wanted to grieve and have my closest family and friends ... I just didn’t want all these people,” she says.

As the story of Lachie’s death gained national and international attention, Officer’s home became a grim point of interest. Strangers would slow down as they drove by, some even parking outside to peer through her windows. A few have knocked on her door and bombarded her with questions.

A letter written in disguised handwriting was anonymously delivered: “Why did you let Johnny push me in the pond? You need to tell the police the truth before he hurts you too! Officer Lachie needs to make an arrest.”

An anonymous letter delivered to Michelle Officer impersonated her dead 3-year-old son, Lachie Jones.

Her sons have also faced harassment and accusations. Her eldest, Cameron, eventually decided to leave Gore.

While still in Gore, his partner received files, messages, and links to media sent to her phone anonymously all insinuating Cameron’s involvement.

“My kids wouldn’t hurt a flea ... they looked after Lachie, they had a great relationship,” says Officer.

Officer’s relationship with Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, was marked by turbulence. At one point, he was arrested and charged with assaulting Officer, later pleading guilty to a charge of common assault. Following that, Officer obtained a protection order against Jones, which she subsequently chose to withdraw. Handwritten letters, allegedly penned by Jones, offer apologies and seek forgiveness.

At the time of Lachie’s death, Officer’s relationship with Jones was civil, but not romantic, she says.

“I wanted Lachie to have a relationship with his father, and I wanted Lachie to see his father. At least when [Jones was] staying at my house, I can look after Lachie. I’d breastfeed him at night, and I could do his nappy, and I could care for him.”

Following Lachie’s death, the pair were estranged.

Lachie was laid to rest in the Gore cemetery. The plot was owned by Officer and a white cross marked the little boy’s grave.

In 2021, Officer read in the local newspaper that a headstone unveiling ceremony was scheduled for Lachie’s birthday. When she reached out to the local funeral home, she was advised to seek legal counsel.

The headstone omitted any mention of Lachie’s mother or brothers.

“Me and my children went up to Lachie’s grave that night after dark, because we knew no one would be there, because I didn’t want to walk into an ambush of people. So we walked up to the site on his birthday, and it was already there. It just destroyed us,” she says.

“I honestly thought we would have done a headstone together, father, mother, and brothers.

“That’s not where I go to remember Lachie, because it brings back all those feelings and accusations ... I’m still really grieving, and I’ve been accused of not grieving.”

Lachie Jones' headstone in the Gore Cemetery. Photo / George Heard

A public march was organised along the route that Lachie is believed to have taken to reach the pond. The march drew about 50 participants and passed by Officer’s home.

Before the occasion, Officer says she was advised by the police to leave her house, or a police guard at her home was offered.

A website set up to raise funds for the father’s legal fight sells merchandise featuring Lachie’s name and lollipop graphics, as well as lollipops with Lachie’s face on the wrapper. The first time Officer saw Lachie’s face on a lollipop, she broke down.

“It’s like they’ve taken ownership of my son. It’s like they think like he’s theirs, they act like they knew him, they’ve taken ownership.

“Sour worms were his favourite sweet, not lollipops.”

She finds it difficult to articulate the emotions she has felt while enduring accusations throughout her grieving process and says she has been living a nightmare.

“As a story, it keeps coming up in the media every few months ... It just makes me feel sick with anxiety. It hasn’t stopped for five and a half years ... I just want to grieve in private,” Officer says.

“It’s cruel and unfair, and the people making these judgments, how would they cope with it? Words can’t express what you go through.”

Officer wished to express her gratitude to the police, first responders, and those who took part in the search that night and the following weeks, for their kindness and respect towards Lachie.

He idolised the police, and on the day of his funeral he was driven to the cemetery by police car.

“I’ve been accused of not grieving, but it’s nothing like the truth ... I just want to move forward and grieve in private,” she said.

A second coronial fixture into the death of Lachie is set to take place next week.