Piha is a coastal settlement on the western coast of the Auckland Region in New Zealand with a population of 600. It is one of the most popular beaches in the area and a major day-trip destination for Aucklanders throughout the year, and especially in summer.
The son of one of the residents at that address calls 111 and reports that he and his mother had picked up “a young woman who was aimlessly walking along the road” about four hours earlier and that she had left the address at about 1.10am. Their concerns were that she had suddenly departed, and a short distance away had discarded her clothing on a cold night and that she may have been under the influence of drugs. In response to this call, a new event was logged as Priority 1 and Police were promptly dispatched to Piha, and other emergency services were activated, including the Piha alarm to alert residents to an emergency.
On October 12, the police release a statement about the search for Iraena;
Officer in charge of the search, Sergeant Mark Fergus says, “The focus of the searchers is to look for any signs or evidence that could assist in locating Ms. Asher. Some of the terrain is steep and difficult to search in the Piha area, but the searchers are highly trained in checking all possibilities and that is what they are doing,”
Searchers included Search and Rescue Volunteers, Police, Park Rangers and the Air Force. Dogs were also used in the search.
Detectives from Waitakere CIB also assisted with inquiries in the area. Det/Snr/Sgt John Sutton is Officer in Charge of the missing person inquiry.
“There are a number of possibilities that have to be considered as we search for Ms. Asher and people in the Piha area can assist by making regular checks of their properties as Ms. Asher could still be wandering in the area,” says Sergeant Fergus.
There is no sign of Iraena.
October 13, police say Search teams at Piha are continuing to look for missing Auckland woman Iraena Asher and a group of her family are also working with the search teams.
O/C Search, Sergeant Mark Fergus says, “The family have already been searching for Iraena and today have been assigned areas to check so are working with the search teams.”
Uniform staff are also going door to door this morning talking with Piha residents.
Det/S/Sgt John Sutton says, “Property searches have already been done in the past two days but the aim of the area canvas by staff is to find out any more information that could assist the inquiry team as part of the search for Iraena.”
On October 17, Police say they have worked with the family of Iraena Asher to establish a profile of her behaviour.
Police and Iraena’s family say there are strong similarities in her behaviour the night she disappeared with other times when she had been sick because of her bi-polar condition.
On the night Iraena disappeared police say statements indicate there was some strange behaviour. Iraena’s family have told police when she is sick Iraena will hide and have no contact with her family, she will convince others of her manic behaviour, does not sleep, has mood swings, has excessive amounts of energy, gives the appearance she is on drugs and has an aversion to light.
Detective Senior Sergeant Sutton says, “On the night she disappeared Iraena is described as having erratic behavior including mood swings, a strong purposeful walk and an aversion to light. She also told people she was with, that she had been given hard drugs but then later said she had not. Iraena’s family says she does not take drugs. Sutton says, one witness who believed she may have been on drugs came to a later conclusion she may be suffering from a mental illness,” Police believe Iraena was not complying with the regime of medication that was prescribed for her.
October 19, the police revealed that they were trying to locate four people who stayed at the Piha Camp Ground that night.
That includes two French tourists and a man who was asked to leave the camp due to his anti-social behaviour described as upsetting to other campers. Police have also released an identikit picture of the man who went by the name Scott, but Police are unsure if this is his name. He left the camp at about 11pm on the night Iraena disappeared.
Detective Senior Sergeant John Sutton says, “This man is not a suspect but is one of a number of people Police need to identify and speak to. The man is described as
Caucasian aged between 40 and 50
178 cm in height (5’10), medium build with a shaven/bald head
He had a fat face, a brown beard to his chest, and brownish possibly false teeth
He was wearing bush style clothing
He had a distinctive wart on the left rear of his head,
He carried a canvas kitbag, with a water bag tied to a bag worn over the shoulder with a homemade strap.
If anyone believes they know the identity of the man or of other people at Piha, they were encouraged to call the police.
All over the country, people were talking about what happened that night, how did the police get it so wrong? What happened to Iraena? If the police sent a patrol car in the first instance, would Iraena be alive?
The Investigation
On October 20, 2004. Police reveal that an inquiry has been conducted and a report has been completed for review by the Police Complaints Authority, into the triple one call Iraena Asher made to police.
Some key points: (link to full report below.)
- Sending a taxi in response to her call was wrong in these circumstances.
- Iraena’s inwards call was handled in a highly professional way. Throughout the call, Iraena made it clear she wanted assistance.
- A Sergeant on duty that night made a decision based upon the information before him that police would not attend but a taxi would be called.
- The dispatcher rung Iraena back telling her a taxi would be called. During this call, Iraena expressed fresh concerns about her position including a belief that she may have been given drugs.
- The dispatcher called the taxi, called Iraena back to advise her that the taxi was on its way. Iraena indicated concern that police were not attending and the dispatcher indicated that he would get the Sergeant to call her back.
- The dispatcher called the Sergeant who reaffirmed his original view that Iraena was capable of leaving the address and seeking assistance. During that conversation, the dispatcher used language that was inappropriate and disrespectful to Iraena.
- The dispatcher and a night shift dispatcher made several attempts to make contact with Iraena. We now know that Iraena had left the address and discarded the phone.
Superintendents Lyall and Carson say considering all the information Police had, a police patrol car should have been sent to Piha.
When Iraena called it took some time to establish whether it was an emergency or not. The conclusion of Police is that it was not an emergency but comments made by Iraena should have been triggers to the staff that a patrol car should still have been sent. Iraena told Police she was scared, this does not constitute an emergency but a car should have been sent.
Police said “We are here not to offer excuses for the actions of our staff but rather an explanation. We are here to explain what happened, we have the report and the procedures are found to be deficient,”
A recommendation is being made to the Commissioner of Police that disciplinary action be taken regarding the conduct of some Police members involved in this incident.
Police continued their efforts to find Iraena and apologized to the family for the initial handling of her call to Police.
Clearly, this issue exposed a deficiency in Police practice around arrangements of taxi services for callers to Police Communication Centres. As a result, the Communication Centres were advised of changes to standard operating procedures to assist in the making of such decisions.
On November 30, Police revealed that an anonymous call was received by a media organization. Following the call Police Search and Rescue conducted a search of bush area between Kerekere and Piha. Nothing was found.
The case went cold, there was no sign of Iraena. There were however so many questions left unanswered. What happened to Iraena?
THE FAMILY SPEAKS
On October 10, 2005, Iraena’s family spoke to reporters at one news a year after her disappearance. (link to full article below)
Despite an apology from the police, Iraena’s parents said justice was not done and they wanted to sue the police. They were obviously heartbroken.
Iraena’s mum and dad, Betty and Mike Asher, were still struggling to explain their daughter’s disappearance.
Mike said “We just wanted to hold her a few more times but we can’t now. We never will,”
Police said sorry for bungling 111 calls Iraena made – sending a taxi rather than a police car to collect her from a Piha address.
Now her parent’s said, they say they need to stand up and fight for a civil case they can’t afford to take against police.
The Asher case triggered a review of the police emergency call system and disciplinary action was taken against the officers involved.
But Betty says the system has still not improved. “There’s no accountability… the system closes ranks and protects their own.”
No legal proceedings were ever brought against the police by Iraena’s family.
A civil case would have been expensive, time consuming and heartbreaking having to go over the details of what happened over and over.
2006 – Report From the Police Complaints Authority on the Police Response to an Emergency 111 Call Made From Piha by Iraena Asher on Sunday 10 October 2004
This is an extremely long and detailed report on all aspects of that night. It includes transcripts of the 111 calls made from and to Iraena. The police responses to the calls. details of the members investigated, police analysis and the investigation and review by the Complaints Authority. The full document can be downloaded HERE
In July 2012, a Coroners Inquest began.
It was nearly 8 years after Iraena’s mysterious disappearance and it would have been her 33rd birthday.
During the inquest, the coroner would hear from Iraena’s family and friends, police, the people who tried to help her on her last night, and the two who watched her disappear.
DAY ONE
Day one, the friend of Iraena’s boyfriend whose house she was at during the day of the 1O October 2004, spoke to the court. He told the court that when they got to the house in Piha that Iraena began crying but wouldn’t say what was wrong. He told the court that “She walked into the lounge like a zombie, and she was spaced out”.
From there, her behaviour got increasingly “out of it”, he said. He tells the court that at one point, she disappeared down to the beach and came back soaking wet. They gave her new clothes, but she took them off, instead wearing a duvet and occasionally dancing naked around the room.
He heard her talking on the phone, then the door slam, and she was gone. That was the last he heard until the police came knocking early the next morning, he said.
Asked by the Coroner if he thought he should have got her medical help, he said no. “I’d never met her before. I thought that was just the way she was.”
Iraena had broken up with her boyfriend of four years ‘Mr. Dyson’ only a week before her disappearance, to be with her new boyfriend.
Dyson said their relationship had been “full-on” from the start, but he was aware of Iraena’s bipolar. “She was really aware of her condition.”
He described how Iraena was impulsive and could be emotional. He said that he had been working nights and hadn’t seen Iraena often in the month before they broke up, she told him she missed a couple of her lithium pills. To make up, she’d take extra.
Despite all of that, Dyson said he didn’t believe Iraena would have killed herself.
“I don’t think she committed suicide. I’d like to think it was accidental.” He told the court about Iraena being a surf lifesaver at one time, how much she loved to swim. “She knew rips and she knew how to navigate them,” Dyson said.
Police had told the court earlier how Iraena’s behaviour grew increasingly bizarre and erratic in the days before she disappeared, which they said likely culminated in her death by drowning.
Police counsel Simon Moore told Coroner Peter Ryan that Iraena was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her mid-teens.
Though Iraena kept the condition under control with Lithium tablets, it could be exacerbated by stress, causing a “relapse” of unpredictable and bizarre behaviour, Moore said.
Officer in charge of the original investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant John Sutton, told the court how during that day Iraena began to act strangely. She was picked up by passers-by, a woman and her son, and taken to their home. They gave Iraena a shower and some food, then put her to bed. But at 1am she fled the house.
Iraena was last seen naked, under a streetlight by a couple .They hid and watched her “address” the streetlight, Sutton told the court. She then appeared to kneel down, and kiss the ground, before turning towards the beach.
“They followed her. The last they saw her as she moved toward the beam of the last streetlight near the beach. They were astonished she seemed to disappear into the darkness,”
A “massive” search found no sign of Iraena. Police suspected she may have been “self-medicating”, but could not establish that fully, Sutton said.
However, he believed her erratic behaviour was the sign of a full manic episode.
Sutton said the most likely scenario was that Iraena had walked into the sea and drowned. Two other possibilities – that she had gone into the bush, or met with foul play – could not be substantiated, he said.
The inquest continues.
The information from this part of the inquest was taken from an article on stuff.co.nz, click the link below to read more. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7293827/Asher-like-a-zombie-witness-says
DAY TWO
On day two of the inquest, the last two people to see Iraena Asher alive gave evidence. They told the court how they watched her walk naked into the darkness in the middle of the night, then went home, had a drink and went to bed – without calling the police.
The couple were walking their dog around 1:30am when they came across Iraena under a streetlight and crouched down, to watch what she was doing.
The male got his phone out to take a video of the young woman, but his partner told him to put it away. The pair watched as she appeared to talk to the streetlight, then get down on her knees and kiss the ground.
The male said her arms were held out, in an almost ritual manner, before she turned from the light and walked towards the beach.”I almost broke into a jog to see where she was going,” he said.
“The last time I saw her was when she exited the second streetlight on Seaview Rd”.
“Simone and I were a bit freaked out because she just vanished,” the male said. The pair went home, had a drink, talked about it, and went to bed.
The male received a text from the volunteer fire brigade but didn’t respond. He didn’t speak with police until they called him the next day when he was on his way to work.
Asked why they didn’t help Iraena, or call the police, the pair said she didn’t appear distressed, and that “skinny-dipping” was common in Piha. The male said”I did wonder how she wasn’t freezing. I wondered if she was under the influence,”
“The fact that she had no clothes on made me wary of frightening her or surprising her. She had a private thing going on,” he said.
Next, the two women and the son who took in Iraena after finding her underdressed and alone on the night have told the inquest into her disappearance that any suggestion they contributed to her death is “despicable.”
The two women, who lived together in Piha when Iraena went missing, sheltered her at their home for four hours before she fled.
Woman 1 and her son picked up Iraena around 9pm while she was walking, dressed in ugg-boots, underwear, and a sweatshirt, after running from a house nearby.
Iraena was distressed and anxious and while she had said she felt safe in the house, she seemed suspicious, Woman 1 told the court. Woman 2 said she thought at the time Iraena was coming down off LSD.
Wanting to help – but warned off calling police by Iraena’s reaction when they mentioned it – the couple instead let Iraena have a shower, gave her food and helped her find a phone number to call her ex-boyfriend’s mother.
They even helped her take her nail polish off because it was distressing her.
But less than five minutes after woman 1 tucked her into bed, with a promise to take her home in the morning, Iraena ran outside. The son called police and and the 2nd woman tried to chase her but found only her dressing gown cast off in the middle of the road.
Responding to comments from police that the couple should have called the police, both reacted angrily and stated Iraena had earlier called the police for help, but they instead had sent her a taxi, which never arrived!
“I felt quite shocked when he said we had failed Iraena,” woman 1 said. “It wasn’t us. We weren’t the people who failed Iraena. We gave her warmth and kindness, we gave her anything she wanted.”
woman 2 went further, saying even in hindsight she wouldn’t have called the police because Asher seemed nervous of them.
“Our priority was to keep her safe. We had no idea until we saw that dressing gown on the road… of what was going to unfold.”
“We made good, considered decisions. The suggestion that we may be culpable at all is nothing short of despicable.”
Asked by Coroner Peter Ryan what she would have done instead of calling the police, woman 2 said she’d call a mental health team.
Earlier, Ryan told woman 1 he believed one of the messages that might come from the hearing is that people need to call the police straight away.
Earlier in the day Iraena’s family told the inquest that she appeared normal the day before she disappeared and showed no signs of slipping into manic or depressive behaviour.
Her father told the inquest that the family knew well the signs of their daughter becoming sick, and when he’d visited her the day before, she seemed fine.
“There was nothing about her that was out of the ordinary. However, she was good at hiding things.”
He did not think Iraena would have drowned herself.
“She would have been trying to touch the water. The tide must have swept her away. But that’s just a speculation.”
Iraena’s sister Angelique Campbell had spent the Saturday before with her sister, she told the court that before Iraena had a manic episode she would get hyperactive and restless.
“She was in constant movement. She would need to be moving and she would run.”
But she told the court that the last day she spent with Iraena was nothing like that. Campbell believed her sister had been taking her medication properly. “She really hated being ill. She knew when she had started to get ill and took responsibility for it.”
Campbell too, ruled out suicide, saying Iraena was a “self-loving” person and suicide did not fit with her personality.
Their testimony was followed by that of a psychiatrist, who said he could not rule out that Iraena had been affected by drugs.
Psychiatrist Dr Wayne Miles said apart from the day of her disappearance, Asher appeared to be functioning well.
On the day of her disappearance, he said, he couldn’t decide if Iraena was having a manic episode or was being affected by a chemical of some sorts. The reports of her behaviour did not provide any definite answers, Miles said.
The inquest continued.
The information was taken from an article, on Stuff.co.nz, click on the link to read more. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7299799/Naked-Iraena-Asher-vanished-into-the-night
DAY THREE – 19 JULY 2012
CORONERS RULING
During the inquest, the coroner heard from Iraena’s family and friends, police, a psychologist, the people who took her in, and the two people who last seen Iraena.
Witnesses told how Iraena, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, behaved unusually during her last day, which she spent drinking with her new boyfriend and his friends at a house in Piha.
Police have attributed Iraena’s behaviour at that house was due to her medical condition.
However, the family who took Asher in after she fled the house and police failed to help her, said they believed she had been drugged and was “coming down off LSD”.
After reading the testimonies, even a clinical psychiatrist could not decide whether it was the bi-polar disorder affecting the young woman or an illegal substance.
Police said they believed Iraena had drowned. The officer in charge of the five-day search, Senior Sergeant Mark Fergus, said the sea at Piha that night was rough and unforgiving, and around 25 percent of bodies washed from the beach were never recovered,
He believed it was unlikely she could have perished in the bush because police searches would have found her. Foul play was also unlikely.
Detective Senior Sergeant John Sutton laid out 10 factors he believed contributed to Iraena’s death – including a messy break-up with her long-term boyfriend, alcohol and cannabis, a manic episode, and the failure of woman 1 & 2, and the son of woman 1 to call police – an allegation the trio rejected.
Sutton also believed Iraena had died in the surf, coming to the conclusion she was dead because in eight years she hadn’t made any contact with family, she didn’t have the resources to live in secret, she didn’t leave New Zealand, and despite a nationwide search and media campaign, there had been no sign of her.
After hearing two full days of evidence about Iraena Asher’s disappearance, a coroner has ruled that she is dead, presumed drowned and that her death was accidental.
Coroner Peter Ryan delivered his decision at the end of the inquest at the Auckland District Court.
He said Ms. Asher was likely to be suffering an emotional crisis following the break up of her long-term relationship that would have been enhanced by her consumption of alcohol and marijuana on the day she vanished at Piha on October 12, 2004.
Based on the evidence, Coroner Ryan did not believe Ms. Asher had been given or taken any hard drugs. However, he said it was clear to him that the “sexually charged” atmosphere at the Piha house she was at with her boyfriend and others made her feel like she was being pressured for sex she did not want to participate in.
Whether she was in the grip of a manic episode could not be fully established because Asher was not examined, he said. But at the very least she was in a highly emotional state due to her break-up with her long-term boyfriend and concerned about her new relationship.
Coroner Peter Ryan, in making his findings into the death of the Auckland woman, said while woman 1,her son and woman 2 of Piha, should be commended for taking Asher into their care they should have called police.
Ryan said. “It’s not a criticism. I’m acknowledging there was an opportunity for professional intervention that may have affected the outcome,”
In making his recommendations, Ryan said the lesson to be learned for the public was to always call 111 – to err on the side of caution.
He made no further recommendations for police, as they had already conducted two investigations, resulting in wide-spread changes to the 111 system.
In making his decision as to Iraena’s death, Ryan said it was unlikely the young woman had committed suicide.
“Iraena had a lot to live for,” he said.
“There is a strong probably she went into the sea in the early hours of October 11, 2004, and subsequently drowned.”
Coroner Ryan said contributing to the death was the failure of the police not to send a car to Piha to ascertain whether Ms. Asher needed help after she made a distressed 111 call.
But instead of sending a patrol car, police called a taxi for her. It never arrived, and it later emerged it had been sent to the wrong address.
The police handling of her call sparked a review of the 111 system that found serious problems, including under-staffing, calls not being responded to in time and low morale among workers.
Woman 1 & 2 wept as Ryan read his findings, afterward admitting they couldn’t agree.
“He made it very clear it was not a criticism. I’m not going to be defensive,” woman 2 said.
“But as far as a contributing factor, we’re not happy about that. I think it lies with police. I’m comfortable with what we did.”
This information was taken from an article on stuff.co.nz, click the link for more information. http://www.stuff.co.nz – coroners ruling
Following the inquest and ruling by the coroner into the night, Iraena went missing.
Woman 1, her son and woman 2 were not happy about the ruling that Coroner Peter Ryan made , he had stated that woman 1,her son and woman 2 of Piha, should be commended for taking Asher into their care but they should have called police.
The three obtained lawyers and took the Coroners court and the New Zealand Police to the High Court. The trial began on 19 March 2013.
A brief outline of the case;
Basically, following a coronial inquest into her death, held in July 2012, the Coroner issued a finding in which he concluded that Iraena had walked into the sea at Piha Beach and drowned. In the course of his finding, he discussed in some detail the applicants’
decision not to call the Police when they came to Iraena’s assistance. He concluded
that the applicants’ decision not to contact Police was a contributing factor in
Iraena’s death.
The applicants challenge that finding on three bases (see link for more details).They say it was unreasonable because there was no evidence upon which it could properly be based.
April 29, 2013, A brief outline of the judgement:
A full transcript of the court proceedings can be viewed HERE
On the 20th September 2019
The family of Iraena Asher spoke to Phil Taylor from the NZ Herald , of the sadness of her mother dying without having got the peace of mind of her daughter’s body being found.
Betty Anne Asher, 65, died in Auckland Hospital less than three weeks after a tumour was diagnosed.
Angelique Asher, the oldest of Betty and Michael Asher’s children, told the Herald,
“You learn to live with it rather than get over it.
“It’s always there … It’s living with a gaping hole in your life and in your heart.
“A photograph of Iraena was on the casket and it went with Mum.
“It brings us great comfort that they are together. Mum will be just so happy to see Iraena again. We are of that belief, we take comfort from our faith.
“Closure is really important and Mum’s passing has really reiterated the importance of getting to say our final goodbyes. We had Mum at home with us for a couple of days. It’s hugely important to help process the grief.
Angelique, 44, said their mother’s death was a shock.
“We have lost in a way our trust in that system but we can’t be holding on to too much negativity and bitterness,” Angelique said.
“We need to celebrate Iraena rather than holding on to the could-haves and should-haves, because that is a pathway to madness.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Iraena Asher, contact your local police or you can call CrimeStoppers 0800 555 111, you can remain anonymous.
So a few Questions come to my mind:
If police had sent the patrol car?
If the three who took her in called the police at the first instance? They have been hassled and accused over the years, did they deserve the ruling from the coroner, that they attributed to her death?
What would you have done?
Was Iraena having a manic episode or was she drugged? or both?
What about the man from the campground who was asked to leave about 11pm that night, where was he?
Was foul play a likely scenario?
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Iraena Asher, contact your local police or you can call CrimeStoppers 0800 555 111, you can remain anonymous.
Thank you so much for reading this, I know it was extremely long and mostly full of articles, news releases, reviews and court proceedings, but the story is still about what happened to Iraena? and I feel that she kind of got lost in all details.
As usual, the links to all my sources and other related material are below.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7307462/Coroner-Iraena-Asher-drowned-accidentally
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7299799/Naked-Iraena-Asher-vanished-into-the-night
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10820690
http://tvnz.co.nz/content/618030/2591764.xhtml
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/missing-model-seemed-fine-disappearance-family
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1557
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1550
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1536
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1551
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1545
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1617
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1538
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1544
http://tvnz.co.nz/content/618030/2591764.xhtml
Police Complaints Authority Decision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piha
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12268869
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12268869
New Zealand Mysteries 