An inquiry into one of New Zealand’s oldest cold cases has ended without answers after a little boy mysteriously disappeared more than 66 years ago.
Yet the family of Peter Boland have found some closure from the Coroner’s report released this month, as they can finally receive an official record of his death.
Peter Boland was just 9 years old when he disappeared in August 1957 at a farm near Ōpōtiki in the eastern Bay of Plenty. No trace of him has ever been found.
While extra police staff were drafted in to search the farm and surrounding bush at the time, along with 150 volunteers, it appears Peter’s disappearance was not treated as suspicious and investigated to the modern standards.
No police records or files seem to have been kept, which means everyone except his family seemed to have forgotten about the missing child until 2017.
The circumstances of Peter’s disappearance were featured in the Sensing Murder television show then, as first revealed by the Weekend Herald, the police opened a missing person file when new information came to light.
The officer-in-charge, Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Lemoto, told the Boland family he was determined to “put right” the apparent failure to properly investigate at the time.
Peter, who lived in Auckland with his parents and brother Gavin, was on holiday at a farm in the Waioeka Gorge when he was reported missing by four men staying on the bush-clad property with him.
The men - three of whom are still alive and are now aged in their 80s - say Peter went missing on the morning of August 31, 1957, while looking for horses near the farmhouse.
Police interviewed the surviving trio, Ken Woods, his brother-in-law Arthur Brasting and Peter Innes-Smith, as well as other witnesses involved in the original search.
The investigation eventually exhausted all lines of inquiry. There was insufficient evidence to determine the cause of Peter’s disappearance, or prosecute anyone, so the case was handed to the Chief Coroner’s office in 2020.
Given the passage of time since 1957, a number of potential witnesses and or interested parties to this inquiry have either passed away or are unable to give evidence due to frailty.
For those reasons, Coroner Matthew Bates decided to make his findings on the evidence available to him, such as witness statements, rather than hold an inquest hearing.
The three men interviewed by police all had different recollections of the last time they saw Peter alive.
Interviews with Kenneth Woods, who spoke to police in December 2018 and May 2019, were unable to be completed because of his age and frailty.
But he told police Peter Boland had been with Peter Innes-Smith and himself on the farm looking for horses.
The two men left Peter at a clearing near a riverbank and told him to wait while they kept searching, Woods said.
When they returned, he was gone.
Woods said they assumed Peter was with the other two men on the farm, Arthur Brastings and the late Les Smith, but realised their mistake when all four men eventually met later. The alarm was then raised, and the search began.
Arthur Brasting, who was Woods’ brother-in-law, was also interviewed in December 2018.
His memory was that Peter Boland was searching for horses; but with Les Smith and himself (not Woods and Innes-Smith).
When they found horses by the river, Brasting said they sent Peter off on foot to tell the others.
Peter Innes-Smith had another recollection altogether.
He remembered an early morning when he saw Woods heading out from the farm homestead on horseback with Peter sitting behind him.
“From there Mr Innes-Smith went a different way from Mr Woods and Peter who went ‘further up a steep ridge’. That was the last time Mr Innes-Smith recalls seeing Peter.”
At the time, the farm was somewhere between 5000 (2020ha) and 10,000 acres of land described as “rough country” being broken in, with a mix of steep hills and deep valleys covered with bush and bracken. A river and streams run through the farm.
The four men raised the alarm and despite an extensive search in 1957, no body, remains, clothing or items of a personal nature belonging to Peter were found.
In his findings released this month, Coroner Bates said that “where Peter went remains a mystery” but it was likely the 9-year-old died on the farm not far from where he was last seen.
“Search appeals commenced the morning of Peter’s disappearance. These would have included voice appeals. No response from Peter was received,” Coroner Bates said.
“Peter was either silenced due to an accident or for some unknown reason, or he managed to travel outside of earshot of those searching for him.”
Coroner Bates considered several scenarios.
The first was that Peter became disoriented and lost on the farm, eventually succumbing to the elements or had an accident, such as a fall which incapacitated or killed him.
Or Peter was the victim at the hands of someone else, either by accident or an “unlawful act”, and his body was then hidden or disposed of.
“There is no compelling evidence available to support this scenario,” the Coroner said.
“This is an unlikely scenario given it would require several individuals to have conspired, to prevent others from locating Peter during the large-scale search that followed.”
The coroner also considered the possibility that, in any of the possible scenarios, wild pigs discovered Peter’s body.
“They would have no difficulty removing any trace of it within a matter of days.”
While there was insufficient evidence to determine the cause of death, Coroner Bates made an official finding that Peter was deceased - more than 66 years after he first went missing.
“Although many years have passed, the memory of Peter as a young boy full of energy and enthusiasm and a sense of adventure lives on through those who knew him,” Coroner Bates said, in extending his condolences.
“Peter’s family sought finality and some form of official record. With the issue of these findings, a death certificate may follow. I hope this will bring some closure for them.”
Gavin Boland told the Weekend Herald it was disappointing but not surprising that many questions remain unanswered about his brother’s death, given the passage of time.
“It would have been nice to have found his body, from our point of view,” Gavin Boland said.
“It’s just a shame my mother never got to see [the death certificate] because she never got to have a proper service for him, as there was no formal proof of death.
“After such a long time, this was more than we ever expected so we’re very thankful for the efforts of everyone involved.”
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
The Serious Crash Unit will undertake a scene examination.