A month after Joanna Sione-Lauaki’s body was found on a Northland beach, her whānau got a shock when police made an announcement about a crucial development.
In a statement to the media and on social media, police released CCTV pictures of a man they believed was the last person to see Jo alive, and called for sightings.
It was news to her whānau.
“They didn’t even think to call us before they put the Facebook post up,” says one of her daughters, Shana. “We had to find out with everyone else.
“The police weren’t communicating with us at that point and we were getting really pissed off.”
Since the death of the 38-year-old Dargaville mother of eight in August, her whānau has not just been dealing with their overwhelming grief.
They have had to endure rumours and speculation and being made to feel like they’re being treated with suspicion, not as victims.
“After that happened, I rang [the police] up and said, ‘Hey, that’s not respectful. Have the decency and respect to call one of us first’,” says Shana.
They believe the reason for the suspicion and gossip is their father Jared’s connection to Black Power. Jared, who has been left devastated by the loss of his partner of 21 years, says anyone who knows him knows there’s no way he would have been involved.
“My biggest regret was not being there to protect her, because that was my job as a husband,” he says.
And daughter Sharney says: “People may think it’s our dad but we can 100 percent tell you that it’s not. Because of who is … it doesn’t make any difference to the pain he’s going through.”
Four months since Jo was murdered, Mata Reports has been investigating her unsolved murder, and spent time with the whānau as they cope with their grief and the pain of not knowing what happened to her.
Police declined to be interviewed for this story.
However, Mata can reveal that when the whānau saw the police announcement, they recognised the man – thanks to investigations they’d been doing themselves.
They had begun digging for answers themselves, since they felt they weren’t being told what was going on.
“We were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do our own little thing’,” says Shana.
“So we’d already seen [him] beforehand and it was familiar to us.”
They recognised him from a previous police announcement, prior to Jo’s murder, in which police said they were looking for a man who was wanted on a variety of charges and appealed for sightings from the public.
Mata understands the man was still on the run at the time of Jo’s death, although he has since been located.
Police refused to answer any questions about him, including whether he is the same man they were looking for in relation to Jo’s case.
They also declined to answer questions about whether the man they said was the last person to have seen her alive had been located, only saying the investigation was ongoing and asking for anyone with information to come forward.
Jo’s body was found on August 2 by a member of the public on a beach she and the family didn’t usually visit, between Omamari and Aranga, north of Dargaville.
“Mum was in the wrong place at the wrong time and someone took advantage of that and took away our mum, and everyone’s sissy and aunty and cousin,” says daughter Shana.
Jared: “She was my reason for getting out of bed, her and the kids. She brought a lot to the table, and the table’s gone.”
The night she went missing, Jo told Jared she was going out to the beach while he headed to bed early. Jared, who was working on a dairy farm, had an early start in the cow shed.
Because he needed to get to sleep, he flicked his phone onto airplane mode, something he often did.
“It became a habit just before I dozed off to flick it down,” says Jared.
In the morning, when he turned his phone back on there was a one-word text from Jo: “Help.”
He started trying to get hold of her, but with a herd of cows to milk, he initially went to work.
“I was distracted, obviously … and kept trying to make contact throughout milking. [I] went home for breakfast break, kept trying, and then returned back to work and just said to my boss, ‘Something’s not right’.”
With one of his daughters, he went to a beach he and Jo regularly went to, to see if they could find any sign of her.
But there was nothing. He instinctively knew something was seriously wrong.
So he went to the police station to report her missing.
That afternoon, her body was found. Several items of clothing were missing, including a white Nike t-shirt with a red tick, tracksuit pants, and Adidas scuffs.
While they wait for answers, the whānau is preparing for their first Christmas without Jo.
“I guess we’re just trying to have a different outlook on it,” says Shana.
Sharney: “Because that’s what Mum would have done.”
Jared says Christmas was always Jo’s thing.
“Now it’s a different dynamic when we don’t have the main lady behind the scenes.
“We had so many beautiful memories together, and we never even had to leave the family home,” he says.
For Jared, himself, there will always be one memory in particular he holds tight.
“When we met, the first time I looked into her eyes. I knew I loved her.”
If you have any information that could help Police enquiries, make contact online https://webforms.police.govt.nz/en/update-report or call 105.
Please use the reference number 240803/9062.
Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
Made with the help of Te Māngai Pāho & NZ on Air
