Body in Waikato River: Diving company finds car, brings ‘closure to whānau’

Michael Murdoch, 44, of Ngāruawāhia, was found dead in his car in the Waikato River in 2024. Photo / NZ Police

The owners of a dive company that discovered a car submerged in the Waikato River with a dead body in it have provided insight into the procedural steps for its removal, and their motivation to bring “closure to whānau”.

Police recently identified the man found dead in his car as Michael Murdoch, 44, of Ngāruawāhia, who had been missing since September 2019.

Deep Dive Division – the company removing wrecked cars and hazardous material from the river – found Murdoch’s car, a red 2001 Nissan Skyline, on August 13, 2024.

It was found “north of the Pukete boat ramp”.

The company’s managing director Tua Karalus, told the Waikato Herald the morning of the search was “part of protocol”.

They previously surveyed the area, identifying “possible targets on our sonar”, which shows regular shapes underwater, until it doesn’t.

Tua and Courtney Karalus, co-owners of Deep Dive Division.

“The team went to the targeted point in the river to dive on it to make sure what it is,” Karalus said.

The divers found the car with a “layer of algae and sediment covering it”.

The organisation itself doesn’t look inside the vehicle; they are given a list of cars and registrations to look out for from Waikato police’s Search and Rescue team.

Before a car removal, the division “needs to investigate”.

“It’s vital that if we find any of these registrations ... we don’t touch or manipulate the vehicle at all.”

Their protocols include identifying the vehicle, its make and model, registration, and contacting search and rescue.

Michael Murdoch's 2001 Red Nissan Skyline, which was found in the Waikato River last year.

They know nothing about a vehicle before diving, only that it’s been involved in an incident.

“This one in particular was highlighted for us, if we ever found this one, to definitely get hold of police.

“That’s exactly what the team did.”

Karalus confirmed that the police dive team removed the vehicle, and locating the vehicle was just part of their wider Waikato River clean-up.

Hamilton-based company Deep Dive Division is committed to its “Beyond the Surface” kaitiakitanga salvage initiative, tackling cars and hazardous debris polluting the Waikato River’s water health and native species.

Since 2022, the team has removed 20 vehicles, a truck, five motorbikes, 28 e-scooters, whiteware, gaming machines, railway sleepers, tools and 33 tonnes of metal debris.

Karalus says, “I take my hat off to the team for sticking to protocol, even though there was a body in there.

“As a human, an organisation, a boss, a person, you don’t want to set your team up for any kind of failure or ... lasting mental issues.

“To follow protocols keeps us safe, and if you go against it, you’re putting yourself at risk of seeing or finding something you don’t want to.”

But more than protocol, he said it was about closure.

“It’s the worst thing in the world to know that one of your own is lost out there ... and you don’t know what’s happened to that person.

“I think that’s been the big thing for our team, to know we’ve brought closure to the whānau, and we can carry on with our kaupapa and mahi.”

The disappearance

Murdoch had last been seen on CCTV footage from Waitomo Wills Service Station in Ngāruawāhia at 7.41am on September 26, 2019.

His phone last pinged off cell towers in the Horotiu area at 6.08am on September 28.

Police have found evidence Michael Murdoch's phone connected to a cellphone tower two days after he was last seen. Photo / Supplied

The phone also pinged off towers in the Te Puroa Rd area in Ngāruawāhia, between midnight and 5am that Saturday morning.

Murdoch lived in a housebus on a section of his landlord Alex Parr’s property, where he would earn his keep doing jobs such as mowing the lawn.

He was reported missing by Parr on Monday, September 30, 2019.

Parr said Murdoch was a gentleman. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

In 2020, his brother Aaron Murdoch said everyone in the family was very concerned.

This week, police said, “Formally identifying Michael was a complex and lengthy process, due to having been in the river for a significant period of time.

“Michael’s death is being treated as unexplained and has been referred to the coroner.”

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.