Two year-old Jefferie Hill went outside to play, saying, "I won't
go away, Mummy." So how does mum Jo Reynolds and his family deal
with the fact they've never seen him again? What happened to him?
This series was first released on 24 November 2017.
Watch a video segment from the episode here
Jefferie Hill would be 52 years old today - but when his mother
last saw him he was just a toddler.
Jefferie disappeared on September 28th, 1968; Keith Holyoake was
still Prime Minister of New Zealand. The 2-year-old had been
playing in the neighbour's back yard before heading towards the
Matarawa Creek in Tokoroa.
It was thought he fell in the water, but despite the creek being
drained and an extensive search carried out for days and weeks
after he disappeared, Jefferie wasn't found. Doubt has crept in
and other scenarios investigated, yet there have been no answers
for a family that has never forgotten their precious boy.
Jefferie's mother, Jo Reynolds, and sister, Laura Hill, told
RNZ's podcast, The Lost, they've had their doubts about Jefferie
falling in the rubbish-filled water.
"There is no way in the world he would have got through that
rubbish," Reynolds says. "That's why I wonder whether he's been
picked up. He's been taken."
The creek is about 3m wide and 1.5m deep, and was used as the
neighbourhood dumping site. Jefferie went missing on a Saturday
morning - the first beautiful day of Spring after three weeks of
rain.
He went outside to play with the neighbour's little girl, Karen
Stubbs, about 9.30am. Jo kept an eye out for her son through a
window, and last saw him tipping a bucket over his head in a
sandpit.
"The next thing I heard Robert, my oldest son who was six at the
time. I heard him scream and I knew he'd been riding his little
bike," she says.
"I thought 'oh my God, he's put his foot through the spokes' and
it was the neighbour, the mother of the little girl, coming over
to tell me that Jefferie had gone into the creek."
The last person to see Jefferie alive was Karen Stubbs. She was
only two years and nine months old. Hundreds searched for
Jefferie. A red plastic spade belonging to him was found
nearby.
The creek was drained and rubbish removed. Residents looked under
buildings and houses. But Jefferie wasn't found.
Former Senior Sergeant Ronald Moncur, 84, was part of the search,
and now lives in Auckland…
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Kommentare (0)
Melde dich an, um einen Kommentar zu schreiben.