Mike Zhao-Beckenridge

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

New Zealand (POLICE)

Missing From:

Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand

Summary:

On 13 March 2015, Swedish-born New Zealander John Beckenridge breached a parenting order and picked up his 11-year old stepson Mike Zhao-Beckenridge from a school in Invercargill. On March 20, Mike Beckenridge's dark blue 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off a 88 m (289 ft) cliff near Curio Bay. On 25 March 2026, Coroner Elliott issued his ruling, concluding that the duo most likely died in a murder suicide. However, Mike's mother Fiona Lu questioned the police investigation's finding that Beckenridge had killed himself and his step-son in a murder suicide and instead suggested that her ex-husband had staged their deaths and fled the country.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

In February 2015, Fiona won full custody of her son, who had been living with John in Lake Hayes Estate at the time of the divorce. In the weeks leading up to the pair's disappearance, Mike sent a series of e-mails to John that mentioned self-harm and pleaded to be reunited with his stepfather. On March 13, 2015, John Beckenridge picked up Mike from James Hargest College at about lunchtime. Over the following week they were spotted in the Catlins area of New Zealand, southeast of Invercargill. On March 16 a farmer spotted the pair in Beckenridge's car on his property. The farmer believed they had spent the night sleeping in it. Another witness told officers at the Balclutha police station that they had seen them at a camping site near the Haldane Estuary on March 19. On March 20, Mike Beckenridge's dark blue 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off a 88 m (289 ft) cliff near Curio Bay. Six weeks later police dragged the wrecked vehicle from the water. When the car was recovered, there were no signs of bodies inside.

Additional Details:

Coroner Marcus Elliot did not hold an inquest into their deaths but instead said he would issue an in-chambers' finding based on existing evidence. A two-week coronial hearing was held in 2023 to determine whether it was an apparent act of filicide, or whether the disappearance was planned. At the time, police said they believed Beckenridge hated his ex-wife – Mike's mother – and this may have led him to kill himself and Mike. Three months after the car was found submerged, a New Zealand woman on holiday in Gili Air Island in Indonesia contacted police to report seeing John and Mike together. This prompted a missing person's poster to be made using her more recent descriptions. She told the coroner she was "100% sure" it was them. He rejected private investigator Mark Templeman's theory that Beckenridge had staged their deaths and fled overseas, stating that it would have involved Beckenridge pretending to be increasingly angry, irrational and faking his dire financial situation. Elliott concluded that Beckenridge was most likely fuelled by rage when he drove his car off the cliff at Curio Bay, killing himself and his step-son.

Case Last Updated:

May 16, 2026