WARNING: This article discusses suicide and may be distressing.

A woman holidaying in Indonesia is adamant she saw missing boy Mike Zhao-Beckenridge and his stepfather three months after their mysterious disappearance and has described her frantic race across the island on a bike to alert police.

“I was 100 per cent sure that it was John and Mike Beckenridge that I saw,” she told the court on Wednesday.

Swedish-born helicopter pilot John Beckenridge broke a court order and picked up his 11-year-old stepson from his Invercargill school on March 13, 2015.

A week after the pair’s disappearance, Beckenridge’s dark-blue 4WD Volkswagen Touareg went off an almost 90-metre cliff near Curio Bay, in Southland, but when police recovered the vehicle there were no signs of any bodies. The pair have been missing since.

However, Mike’s mother Fiona Lu is convinced her son is alive and her former partner staged the pair’s death after she moved Mike from Beckenridge’s Queenstown home to Invercargill with her new partner.

Now, Coroner Marcus Elliot is looking into the case at the Christchurch District Court to consider whether it is likely the pair are dead.

An inquest is probing the disappearance of Mike Zhao-Beckenridge, who vanished with his stepfather in 2015, when he was 11.

The hearing, which began on Monday, is expected to take two weeks and will hear evidence from witnesses, including someone who believes she spotted the pair overseas four months after their disappearance.

On Wednesday, the woman in Gilli Air Island, who cannot be identified, was holidaying with her friend in what she described as a relaxed destination attracting retired couples and young families.

On June 30, 2015, she was walking along the beach when she saw an older European man with a younger Asian boy walking towards her, in a “happy conversation”.

She immediately recognised the pair from media reports in New Zealand as Beckenridge and Mike, stating several times during her evidence that she was “very confident” it was them.

The woman was interested in the Beckenridge case and had been checking her phone for updates in the media, saying images of the pair were still fresh in her mind.

John Beckenridge's car was found at the bottom of an 88m cliff near Curio Bay, in the Catlins. But there was no sign of any bodies. Photo / Otago Daily Times

She said the man’s eyes were the same as in pictures of Beckenridge, although they appeared more “friendly and relaxed” and the boy looked as if he had put on a bit of weight.

She said they looked like a “unique pair” walking together, as it was a school day, so it was strange to see a child walking along the beach. She noted that the boy looked taller and had a “bigger build” than most of the local children.

She went to a cafe to connect to Wi-Fi and called her father in New Zealand, who contacted police. The next morning the woman woke up to missed calls from a New Zealand police officer who told her to contact local police.

The woman then described a frantic “race” to alert local police as she was leaving the island that day.

She hired a bike and rushed around the island until she found two men in uniform and told them what she had seen. It was an “interesting challenge” as they didn’t speak much English.

When the woman returned to New Zealand, she received an email from police thanking her for contacting them, but they were no closer to finding the pair. She was interviewed by private investigator Mark Templeman in March 2016, relaying what she had seen.

She said she was “amazed” at how long it took police to ask her for a formal statement in 2017.

Police were alerted to a reported sighting of the Beckenridges on March 19 at a campsite off Weir Rd on the Haldane Estuary roughly 14km from the cliff Beckenridge’s vehicle went off. Photo / supplied

“I have felt throughout that the police have not taken my sighting seriously, otherwise they would have interviewed me in person. I was 100 per cent sure that it was John and Mike Beckenridge that I saw.”

In court, she said she was now 85 per cent certain it was the Beckenridges, as they seemed “more relaxed” than the pictures.

Earlier today, coroner Elliot addressed Lu’s partner Peter Russell, who was sitting at the lawyer’s bench with investigator Templeman, acknowledging how difficult this process can be. He also thanked police and counsel for all their hard work on the case.

He said he would look into whether Beckenridge’s vehicle going off the cliff was a murder-suicide or a staged murder-suicide aimed at deceiving people into believing the pair were dead.

Lisa Preston, KC, assisting the coroner, also raised the possibility of a “mutual suicide” given the tone of Mike’s emails to his father, mentioning self-harm if he could not be with him

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the court heard from Sergeant Frederick Shandley, who conducted a scene examination of Beckenridge’s home in Lake Hayes Estate, Queenstown, after he disappeared.

One thing that stood out to Shandley was how spotless the place was, both inside and out.

“It was a very tidy, very clean house. It was well-kept.”

Shandley said there were two fridge-freezers side by side in the kitchen, with one containing various medications under the names of John Lundh, one of Beckenridge’s aliases, and Mike Beckenridge.

He also found bottles and snap-lock bags of water-purifying tablets.

Heartbreaking texts sent from Mike to his mother before his disappearance read: “You do not deserve to be my mum. You certainly do not deserve my love.”

As police continued their search, they were alerted to a reported sighting of the pair on March 19 at a campsite off Weir Rd on the Haldane estuary, roughly 14km from the cliff Beckenridge’s vehicle went off.

Swab testing and further examinations of the site revealed a plaster with Mike’s fingerprints on it as well as prints of a shoe belonging to Beckenridge, which would later wash ashore in the Curio Bay area.

On Monday, Preston outlined the case. She said Beckenridge met Mike’s mother, who is from China, in 2006. Lu’s parents were raising Mike at the time.

The pair later moved with Mike to Queenstown. Their relationship broke down in 2014. Shortly after that, Lu moved to Invercargill.

In February 2015, the Queenstown Family Court made an order that Lu should have care of Mike.

Mike was unhappy to be taken away from his stepfather and was secretly communicating with him by email, pleading for Beckenridge to come to take him away from his mother and her partner.

Mike told Beckenridge he was misbehaving so he could be sent back to live with his stepfather. He also called the police on one occasion, saying his mother had assaulted him, in the hope he would get sent back to Queenstown.

On March 20, Beckenridge’s friends began receiving “concerning” texts from him, stating the “Gestapo” was after him and Mike, and they would soon be getting on the “Midnight Express” for departure.

On March 22, items belonging to the Beckenridges, such as clothes and car parts, washed ashore in the Curio Bay area. Soon after, Beckenridge’s vehicle was found at the bottom of the cliff.

The police national dive squad was able to investigate the wreckage on March 29 but it wasn’t until May 6 that the vehicle could be recovered. No bodies were found.

To date, police have had 60 suspected sightings of the Beckenridges or their vehicle, some of which have been deemed unlikely or eliminated.

Information about possible sightings continues to be reported from within New Zealand and from Kiwis overseas.

The hearing continues.

- Emily Moorhouse, Open Justice