John Beckenridge, left, and Mike Zhao-Beckenridge. Photo: SUPPLIED
The coronial hearing into the disappearance of John Beckenridge and his stepson Mike has concluded after a witness retracted claims they were helped to escape.
Beckenridge and the 11-year-old were last seen in the Catlins, Southland, in March 2015, and their car was later found in the sea at the bottom of a cliff.
Police argued the pair died in a murder-suicide, but Mike's family believed they staged their deaths and fled overseas.
The court heard that Oliver Watson contacted police in 2023 claiming his cousin Paul Watson - the landowner - told him in a phone call in the same month they disappeared that John Beckenridge and his stepson were alive and he had helped them escape.
Oliver Watson. Photo: George Heard/NZ Herald
Oliver Watson retracted that allegation in an appearance via video link on Wednesday, and said all Paul Watson said to him about the missing pair was, "don't worry they're all right".
His cousin never mentioned the word alive or said he had helped them, Oliver Watson said.
Police lawyer Deirdre Elsmore told Oliver Watson that his admission was a "complete turnaround" from his earlier statement.
"I know it is, it was very confusing... when I read the statement, I only got the statement today, this morning, I thought Paul never said that, where did that come from?" Oliver Watson said.
The cove near Curio Bay that was at the centre of the search for Michael Zhao-Beckenridge, 11, and his stepfather John Beckenridge. Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer
Referring to his conversation with police in 2023, he said "a lot of confusion has gone down there".
Elsmore put to Watson that his cousin's comment about the Beckenridges being "all right", could have been a statement of comfort representing Paul Watson's faith as a church pastor.
Oliver Watson said he did not interpret it that way at the time, but now accepted that could be the case.
He apologised to his cousin, who was in court, for making the allegation.
Paul Watson. Photo: George Heard/NZ Herald
Paul Watson told the hearing he could not recall speaking to his cousin on the phone about the Beckenridges' disappearance in 2015 but accepted they could have spoken.
He said his cousin's allegations that he helped them escape were completely untrue.
"Helping John Beckenridge would make me complicit with his crime and I would not do that. I have never met or ever seen John Beckenridge in person," he said.
"Everybody round the district was saying they were all right, there was the controversy that have they drowned or have they escaped, and it's possible I just fitted in that way... but it was certainly not inferring that I helped them as he created that allegation on. And he himself is saying he got it wrong."
Paul Watson believed his cousin's allegation was motivated by the thought he had some form of entitlement to his farm property at Curio Bay.
The court heard that the cousins had a long-running feud over the farm.
Paul Watson said search and rescue teams searched his property in 2015 after the pair vanished.
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