By late February 2015, the 11-year-old’s emails to his stepfather intensified and provided an insight into their desperation. The pair were on the run in Mr Beckenridge’s Volkswagen, evading police for the next week, setting up camp near Curio Bay. The coroner concluded Mr Beckenridge and Mike must have been sitting on latched seatbelts, but the reason remained a mystery. The coroner acknowledged Mr Beckenridge’s past was "sufficiently mysterious and suggestive to provide fertile grounds for innuendo and speculation". Fiona Lu, mother of Mike Beckenridge, still believes her son is alive and will come back to her one day.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 24, 2026 16:10 UTC