Piha’s missing people: Six lost forever at West Auckland beach

Quentin. Iraena. Cherie. Kim. Laurence. Eloi.

They are six people who never met but are connected forever because of where they vanished into thin air. Piha Beach is a jewel in the crown of Auckland’s landscape - and the scene of some of the most curious and tragic unsolved disappearances. Senior journalist Anna Leask reports.

Picturesque Piha. Photo / Grace5648 Dreamstime

Over the years speculation has been rife about those lost in and around the glistening black sands of Piha.

Some subscribe to the theory that evil killers - or a serial killer - lurk amid bushes, pouncing on unsuspecting visitors, taking them from their worlds forever.

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Others ponder whether the disappearance are the work of the spirits, connected to the tragic tale of the inconsolable daughter of a Maori chief who fell to her death from Piha’s forboding cliffs after her beloved husband was taken by the sea during a fishing trip.

Coroners have ruled the most likely scenario is the majority of those missing were claimed by the wild West Coast waters after accidents or self-inflicted incidents.

They say there is simply no evidence of foul play, of kidnapping, of dangerous or nefarious forces.

But there was evidence of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, distress over breakups, increasing isolation, drug and alcohol issues.

The last moments of Quentin, Iraena, Cherie, Kim, Laurence and Eloi may never be known.

While so many questions remain unanswered, one thing is certain - each and every person lost to Piha is an absolute tragedy.

Here is what we know about the victims.

Iraena Asher - October 12, 2004

On October 11 Asher, 25, travelled to Piha with her new boyfriend and his mate, arriving at the latter’s house about 9am.

She left soon after, walking about 4km to the beach and that’s when things seemed to unravel for her.

At 11.30am a family visiting the area saw Asher sitting on the sand crying, noting she looked “spaced out” and appeared lost.

Iraena Asher

They offered her a ride home but she refused. She was acting strangely and making odd comments about people keeping things from her.

Asher returned to her boyfriend’s mate’s house wet, covered in sand and upset.

They said over the next few hours she repeatedly took her clothes off and behaved “seductively”.

The men said she smoked some cannabis but denied she took - or was given - any other drugs.

Eventually Asher was put to bed on a couch - but about 10 minutes after everyone else went to bed, she walked out into the night.

At 9pm a distressed Asher made a call to 111 that is now infamous.

Instead of sending a patrol car to Piha to assess whether the woman needed help, police called a taxi for her.

It never arrived and it would later emerge it had been sent to the wrong address.

Asher was picked up by local woman Julia Woodhouse and her son.

They said she went from hallucinating to being “quite lucid”.

They took her home and, with Woodhouse’s partner Bobbie Carroll, warmed her up and gave her food before trying to put her to bed on a couch in the lounge.

Five minutes later she left, walking back into the stormy night wearing only a dressing gown.

At 2am Asher was seen by a couple out walking their dog.

Iraena Asher's parents, Betty and Michael, after she went missing in 2004. Photo / Richard Robinson

She was naked and standing under a street light. She spoke to the light before kissing the ground and walking towards the beach.

The couple followed her, worried.

They saw her for the last time under the last light on the street. Then, she was gone.

After that there was no sign of Asher.

For years her family searched for - and demanded - answers.

Where was their beloved daughter and sister? No one could ever work it out.

In 2012 an inquest was held and Coroner Peter Ryan declared Asher had died that night in Piha.

Members of Iraena Asher's family search an area of bush around Piha. Photo / Dean Purcell

He determined her death was accidental, that she had most likely walked into the surf, been swept out to sea and drowned.

The Coroner was critical of those who had the last contact with Asher, saying her death could have been prevented if Woodhouse and Carroll and the police made better decisions that night.

Later then-Chief High Court Judge Justice Helen Winkelmann quashed the Coroner’s ruling, saying his criticism of Woodhouse and Carroll was “unreasonable, as it had no proper evidential foundation” and it “was based upon speculation as to a possible outcome if events had occurred differently”.

Cherie Vousden - December 22, 2012

Vousden was last seen walking the Mercer Bay loop track near Piha Beach.

The 42-year-old mother-of-one lived on the North Shore but frequented the track often, her brother told the Herald after she disappeared.

Cherie Vousden was last seen by tourists walking along the track in 2012. Photo / Supplied

“She loved the sunsets out there, she would come back home with the daisies she had picked from Log Race Rd.”

She was last seen by tourists walking along the track with jandals and a bottle of wine in her hand.

They told police she was “visibly impaired”.

Her car was found unlocked and with the windows down, parked near the entrance to the track (also known as the Ahu Ahu Track).

Police carried out extensive searches for Vousden on land, water and by air but there was no sign of her and no body was found.

There was no evidence of foul play - or any other person being involved in Vousden’s disappearance.

They determined she had most likely fallen from the cliffs - some points with drops of more than 200m - into the raging water below and swept out to sea.

Coroner Neil McLean agreed with the police when he reviewed the case.

He said while Vousden had a history of suicidal ideation and a “complex mix of substance abuse and a history of depression” he could not rule she had intended to take her own life.

He said police had carried out an “impressively diligent amount of research and inquiry” and “all the circumstances point without any doubt” to Vousden falling “from a great height down the cliffs” and being “swept away by the sea”.

“The combination of her impairment... plus her location leaves open the very real possibility that she accidentally fell - we will never be able to take it any further than that,” said the Coroner.

“I just want to make it clear that I am not making a finding of suicide or self-inflicted death.”

Piha viewed from the Mercer Loop track. Photo / Michael Craig

“It was absolutely heartbreaking not knowing, and still not knowing,” Vousden’s brother Darren Roberts told the Herald.

“We spent many weeks up there searching, after authorities had exhausted their search, with friends and family we carried on searching up there for a good couple of weeks.”

He said while the area was “very unforgiving” it still troubled the family that no evidence was found.

“There is always that thought of other scenarios,” said Roberts after the Coroner’s ruling was published.

Kim Bambus - March 24, 2017

Bambus, 21, worked as a nurse at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital.

Like Vousden, she was a regular visitor to Piha, often running the Mercer Bay loop.

The day she vanished she’d told her flatmate that was where she was heading.

Kim Bambus. Photo / NZ Police

She threw on black shorts and a pink exercise top with her Nike running shoes, pulling her dark hair back into a ponytail.

She grabbed her water bottle and left the house, stopping at a nearby supermarket to buy snacks.

Images captured there on security cameras were the last to be taken of Bambus.

She was reported missing at 8pm that night by her flatmates who were concerned that she was not home.

They’d driven out to Piha to look for her and when they could not locate her they called police.

The last known image of Kim Bambus at Countdown supermarket. Photo / NZ Police

Five hours later Bambus’ car was found in the same car park Vousden had left her vehicle.

Bambus’ phone was in the car and there was nothing to indicate where she had gone.

Police and LandSAR crews spent many hours looking for the woman, several experts abseiled in and around the cliffs hoping to find Bambus.

Lifeguards took inflatable boats out, trawling up and down the coast and police used drones to scour the harder-to-reach parts of the cliffs and infrared cameras in the dense bush.

They delivered hundreds of letters about the missing woman to the local community.

But to date, no search has unearthed any physical evidence of what happened to Bambus.

Missing woman Kim Bambus. Photo / Supplied by family

“There has also been a team of investigative staff looking into Kim’s movements and activity in the weeks prior to last Friday,” Detective Inspector Hayden Mander told media at the time.

“A vast amount of information has been gathered to this point about Kim’s activities, which includes checks with health professionals, as well as checks of her internet and phone searches.

“Though inquiries have also looked at previous missing person reports in that area, there is currently nothing to indicate any link whatsoever with any other missing person case.”

Bambus’ case was referred to Coroner Deborah Marshall who, after looking at all the information provided to her about the young woman’s life and medical history, ruled that she had committed suicide at Piha.

She said Bambus had a known history of depression, for which she took medication and saw a counsellor.

On March 10 she saw her GP who recorded she was “considered at low to moderate risk of harm”.

“While she had some suicidal ideation, she did not report any planning of self-harm and had made no previous suicide attempts,” the Coroner said.

Soon after, Bambus started taking antidepressants and the week before she vanished, her flatmates noticed changes in her behaviour.

She was not sociable, which was “unusual”.

“In hindsight, [one flatmate] thinks that Kim was isolating herself from her flatmates in the days leading up to her disappearance. She would go into her room by herself to read or watch movies instead of staying in the living room,” said Coroner Marshall.

She was not her usual “outgoing and talkative” self but when asked about her mood Bambus said she was “a bit tired from nursing”.

“I have considered and assessed all the information gathered during this inquiry... the cause of death is not known but I am satisfied her death was from her intentional actions and in circumstances amounting to suicide,” Coroner Marshall ruled.

“In reaching this conclusion I have taken into account Kim’s diagnosed depression, her mood change in the period leading up to her death and the searches she had been conducting on websites prior to her death.

“I have also taken into account... Kim’s decision to go to Piha on her own. This was unusual in two respects. She would normally go for a run around Ponsonby and she would not usually go to Piha on her own.

“Police advise that a body in the water in that area would be swept out to sea and not recovered.”

Laurence Wu - March 12, 2019

Guoquan (Laurence) Wu was last seen on March 10, 2019 on Sainsbury Rd, St Lukes, Auckland.

His vehicle - a Hyundai Santa Fe - was found at Piha Beach car park two days later.

But Wu was nowhere to be found and there has been no sign of him since.

Missing international student Guoquan 'Laurence' Wu was 'funny and outgoing', his brother says. Photo / Supplied

Like with Vousden and Bambus, police carried out multiple land searches in the area near the car - aerial sweeps, ground searches and scouring the wider coastal area.

“Sadly, none of these searches has uncovered any trace of Laurence,” said Sergeant Tania Kingi in June 2019.

Kingi said police had issued multiple public appeals for information and as a result had spoken to a number of people in the Piha area, and those who were last in contact with Wu.

But the case was never solved.

The 22-year-old University of Auckland student’s parents and brother, Lucas, flew to New Zealand from the family’s home city of Guangzhou, in China, shortly after his disappearance.

They offered a $200,000 reward to anyone who could help them find Wu, saying they were desperate for closure.

Auckland student Guoquan Wu, also known as Laurence Wu, has not been seen since March 10, 2019. Photo / Supplied.

“We are hopeful that once the public sees the news, someone can provide critical or accurate information that will help us find Laurence,” his brother said.

Wu had broken up with his girlfriend shortly before he vanished and she told his family he had indicated he was going to Piha to “clear his mind”.

His family did not believe the “funny and outgoing person” would harm himself deliberately.

But when police referred the case to the Coroner, that was the ultimate ruling.

Coroner Peter Ryan revealed in his 2021 findings that that during the investigation Wu’s ex-girlfriend had confirmed that the day he was last seen, he had told her he “wanted to end his life”.

He later told her he had self-harmed and was in a place “with not many people around”. He said he had left a note on his computer for her.

The ex-girlfriend called around Wu’s closest friends who assured her “he would not take his own life”.

But Coroner Ryan said that was the only realistic scenario.

“Based on all of the above, it is very unlikely that Laurence has chosen to disappear and is simply in hiding,” he said.

“Nor is there any evidence to indicate that he may have been kidnapped and is being held against his will.

“The only likely explanation is that Laurence went into the ocean at Piha and drowned. It is not uncommon for the bodies of people who drown in the ocean not to be recovered.

“Police have found no evidence to indicate that Laurence may have died at the hands of any other person. Consequently, this death was either the intended or unintended consequences of his own actions.

“On balance, I consider that the weight of evidence compels a finding that Laurence set out to take his own life.”

Coroner Ryan acknowledged it was possible Wu could have died in an accident - he could have simply drowned while going for a swim or fallen while climbing rocks.

“In my view the factors... indicating an intention to take his own life significantly reduce the probability of either of those scenarios of accidental death,” he said.

“The factors are strong and cogent evidence that Laurence’s actions were intentional and amount to suicide... Laurence was known to be distressed at the breakup of his four-year relationship... [he] left a note indicating an intention to take his own life.

“Laurence had expressed to [his ex] an intention to take his own life on the day that he disappeared. Laurence had googled topics on how to take his own life on the day he disappeared... Laurence was of an age, and had sufficient life experience, to know that his actions would likely result in death.

“On balance, I consider that the weight of evidence compels a finding that Laurence set out to take his own life.”

Eloi Rolland - March 6, 2020

The French teen came to Auckland as part of a student exchange programme in September 2019.

He was staying with a host family in Birkenhead on the North Shore and failed to return home on March 6.

At about 6.30am the next day Rolland was captured on CCTV footage catching a train from Britomart Station in the CBD.

Eloi Jean Rolland, 18, was last seen in March 2020 at the Fruitvale Road railway station in New Lynn. Photo / Police

At 7.26am he exited Fruitvale Station at New Lynn.

Cell phone data picked up later placed the teenager in the area of Piha Rd at 9.18am. It stopped transmitting after that point.

Police believe he may have walked there - a journey of at least 10km.

Rolland has not been seen since.

They followed up a number of leads passed on but to date Rolland’s trail remains cold.

He had told his family he was homesick and decided to return to France months earlier than originally planned.

When Rolland left his Birkenhead homestay he took some belongings but did not say anything about his plans. It is not known what he did the night before he left Britomart.

The last known image of Eloi Rolland.

His cousin Segolene told French media that the teen had a “passion” for hiking and the family wondered if he had an accident out on a track.

“We thought of everything, the voluntary disappearance, of course, the accident too,” Segolene said.

“But after a month, I tell myself that it is not possible. We would have found his body if that was it.

“We are more and more convinced that something strange happened, that he had a bad meeting.”

Rolland’s case is the only one of the Piha missing persons that remains under police investigation.

Detective Senior Sergeant Callum McNeill said he was keeping an open mind around what happened to the teen.

Eloi Rolland was in New Zealand to learn English. Photo / Supplied

“We continue to do everything we can to find Eloi and provide his family with answers to the questions they desperately seek,” he said earlier.

Before his disappearance, Rolland was in regular contact with his family several times a week.

“His disappearance is very out of character and we are extremely worried,” they said in a statement to the Herald in 2020.

“He has never run away from home… We desperately want to know where Eloi is and we urge anyone with information or any sightings of him to please contact police.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Waitemata Police on 09 839 0697.

Quentin Godwin - May 20, 1992

Another case connected to Piha is that of Quentin Goodwin.

Police long believed that Godwin left home and took his own life.

But his mother Sarah Godwin said until she saw evidence of her son’s death she would continue to hope he is alive.

Quentin Godwin in 1991. Photo / Supplied

In 2014 Coroner Deborah Marshall held an inquest into Godwin’s disappearance.

Police told the Coroner that on the day Godwin went missing his 12-year-old stepsister witnessed him writing a note just before he left the house.

Shortly after he was seen “with an expressionless look on his face” by a family friend who called out to him but got no response.

He was reported missing the next day and police were given a note, believed to be the one his stepsister saw him scrawling.

The opening line read: “I’ve made up my mind to rid myself of this world as I have failed to fit in”.

The inquest heard that about a week before he disappeared another note was found that intimated Godwin planned to end his life.

Keen gardener, Quentin Godwin in 1991, a year before he went missing

The same day he hitchhiked to Piha and back, telling the driver on the return trip that he planned to throw himself off Lion Rock but did not go through with it.

Godwin had mental health issues and was thought to suffer from bipolar disorder. He took the anti-depressant drug lithium for a time.

His parents split when he was young and his father lived at the Centrepoint commune, founded by Bert Potter, for a time. Godwin spent time there with his father.

His stepbrother, Chris Edwards, told the coroner he was “deeply unstable in the head”.

“He was obviously a very troubled soul... he was a very fiery character. He definitely had issues going on in his life that weren’t dealt with.

“He was deeply tortured.”

Age enhanced photo of Quentin Godwin.

Police said over the years various inquiries had been made to follow up leads passed on to police including that he was married with a daughter and living in Bluff, and living in Ashburton with his pregnant girlfriend.

They said ultimately there were four scenarios - that Godwin had faked his own death, that he was the victim of foul play, that he killed himself at Piha or in the bush or that he had gone to the area to get away, and become lost and died as a result.

The most likely was suicide.

Coroner Marshall declared Godwin was dead but said there was not enough evidence to make a ruling on how his life ended.

His cause of death was “unknown” and to date, no body had been found.

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz

SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION

Where to get help:
• Lifeline: Call 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP) (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234
• What's Up: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or webchat (11am to 10.30pm)
• Depression helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)
• Helpline: Need to talk? Call or text 1737
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.