Three-year-old Lachlan Jones drowned in the Gore District Council's wastewater ponds in January 2020. Police are conducting a review into the case. Photo: SUPPLIED/ODT
An expert forensic pathologist says there is no evidence that Lachie Jones died from a dry drowning.
The expert phase of Coroner Alexander Ho's inquest into the 3-year-old's death began Tuesday morning in the Invercargill District Court.
In 2019 Lachie was found 1.2km away from his Gore home, face up in an oxidation pond.
Police quickly concluded the boy had drowned but later confessed they had "missed some steps" in the investigation.
Lachie's father Paul Jones never believed his son drowned and called the investigation a "bloody botched-up police job".
Today, expert forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage said there were causes of death other than drowning that could not be excluded from the post-mortem that was completed.
"In this case, which requires a thorough exclusion of other potential causes of death not visible externally, the operating pathologist has done an adequate job as far as it goes but has stopped too soon," the witness said.
"His failure to examine the interior of the head and brain means that there is no exclusion of the reasonable possibility that this child has accidental or inflicted injuries."
He explained that most people who drown have waterlogged lungs but a "dry-drowning", when muscle spasms in the airway block airflow and there is no water in the lungs, could occur.
"While it is possible here, it is unlikely given the water temperature of the pond and there is no evidence to support this concept in this case," he said.
He said water could have been moved out of Lachie's lungs during resuscitation attempts, but that was also unclear.
In the first section of the inquest, Jones' lawyer Max Simpkins alleged that Lachie had been killed earlier in the day and his body was put in a freezer before he was found in the water.
Dr Sage addressed this theory. "In my view the allegation of prior death and freezing before immersion in the pond is without any identifiable factual basis," he said.
Dog handler did all the right things
This morning, Inspector Todd Southall, an expert in police dog handling, said the officer whose dog found Lachie did everything he could on 29 January 2019.
Constable Lachlan MacDonald's police dog Gee did not pick up Lachie's scent until she was 30m away from his body.
Counsel assisting the coroner Simon Mount KC explained why people have queried the close pick up - Lachie had a soiled nappy and may have travelled in bare feet.
"A well-trained dog picked up no scent in that area," Mount said.
Southall explained many factors on the night such as heat, scene contamination, the time between Lachie disappearing and the dog arriving meant a scent trail would have been difficult to track.
The witness said that because Lachie was a small boy he would leave a weaker scent trail than a heavier adult.
"The dog is a dog, the dog does not understand that he is there looking for a 3-year-old child that's gone missing," Southall said.
"The decision he made around not casting at the beginning because of the large amount of people was the right decision because he wouldn't have achieved anything."
He said the dog picked up an airborne scent closer to Lachie and dog handler "did all the right things".
This phase is expected to hear from experts in forensic pathology, child behaviour and dog handling.
Lachie's half-brother Johnathan Scott is expected to be recalled in the coming weeks.
The first part of the hearing heard from the boy's family, eye-witnesses and police involved in the investigation.
The inquest will continue this afternoon and Dr Sage is expected to continue giving evidence.
- This story was originally published by the Otago Daily Times.