Credit: NZ Herald |
Murky accounts surrounding a mysterious scuba diving fatality have frustrated a coroner unable to determine a cause of death after conflicting accounts by four men on the dive boat.
After two police investigations and a three-stage coronial inquest, the family of Thai national Bua-Ngoen "Goy" Thongsi, who perished off the North Canterbury coast in February 2015, still have no idea how she died.
"Unfortunately, and sadly for Ms Thongsi, [...] I cannot be satisfied, even on the balance of probabilities standard that applies to my jurisdiction, that the sequence of events which led to Ms Thongsi's death has been fully disclosed," Coroner Brigitte Windley says in her 78-page findings into the death released today. |
|
|
The body of the 37-year-old crayfish scuba diver, who was possibly pregnant at the time, was recovered off Motunau Beach two days after she disappeared.
Coroner Windley ruled the accounts of her dive companions to be "insufficiently credible".
The inquest's key witnesses were four men on board the boat on February 8, 2015, whose identities can finally revealed today: boat owner and skipper David Avei, a married man who admitted having a relationship with Thongsi at the time of her death; and Brent Chappell, Ina Tikeii and Wally Mohi.
"Despite rigorous exploration, the witness accounts of these men remain largely irreconcilable on key points, and individually and collectively fail to disclose a plausible and cogent explanation for either Ms Thongsi's loss of buoyancy, or her death," Coroner Windley concludes. |
|