Underwear prank before lost teenager died in bush

A prank involving women's underwear had not embarrassed 14-year-old Elon Oved into wandering off and getting lost in the bush, his tramping companions told the Coroner's Court in Westport yesterday.

Elon's body was found near the Alfred River, at Springs Junction, on February 10, 10 weeks after he got lost during an overnight tramp to Lake Daniells.

He was one of 11 members of the Halswell Jehovah's Witnesses who headed into the area on December 1 last year.

The death of the teenager has divided the group of formerly close friends and the police warned them yesterday against arguing in the courthouse.

The court heard that as a prank on a church elder and "prude", one of the group stashed women's underwear in his pack and photographed one of the boys wearing a bra when they arrived at the lake hut.

Others were photographed, without their knowledge, while urinating.

The photographer, Erik Sowman, said it was just a lark and everyone, including Elon, "thought it was a great joke".

But Elon's father, Rami Oved, suggested that it had so embarrassed his son that when he went to change out of his wet clothes, he was forced further into the bush because he was afraid of being photographed.

Coroner Peter Roselli was told how Elon and the two other teenagers in the party spent the afternoon frolicking in an inflatable dingy on the lake.

They had a break in the hut mid-afternoon, when the underwear incident took place, and then returned to the lake until about 6pm.

Several witnesses said Elon was laughing and having fun the whole time. His close friend, Phillip Mehrtens, 15, said he showed no signs of distress after the underwear incident.

When the trio arrived back at the hut, Elon said he would change in the outside toilet because the hut was too crowded.

Ray Oved, 17, said the last time he saw his brother he was happy, "joking and excited because he had just seen an eel".

But he said Elon had acted strangely when he said he was going to get changed and he "sensed" he was not happy.

When he did not return after five minutes, two of the youngsters sneaked over to the toilet to give him a fright but he was not there.

- NZPA