Speaker 1: Kiata.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. French exchange
Speaker 2: student Elois Roland was last seen five.
Speaker 1: Years ago today.
Speaker 2: The then eighteen year old's disappearance has baffled authorities ever since.
Speaker 1: Was it murder, a kidnapping, an accident?
Speaker 2: Did he get lost in the bush, commit suicide or
Speaker 2: plan an escape?
Speaker 1: Is he still alive? Does he want to be found?
Speaker 2: He searches Google Maps for directions to Piha about five
Speaker 2: am that morning, he walks for nearly two hours. He
Speaker 2: turns onto Pihar Road about nine sixteen am and at
Speaker 2: nine forty eight am the battery on his phone goes
Speaker 2: dead and then nothing nothing for five years. Today on
Speaker 2: the front Page, Herald's senior journalist and A Lease wins
Speaker 2: us as we take a look back at Aloa's disappearance.
Speaker 2: We'll also hear some clips from my conversations with Alowa's parents,
Speaker 2: Tieri and Katsman, and Bruno du Bois of a Cappella Productions,
Speaker 2: who directed a documentary series in France about Lawa's story.
Speaker 2: And Elois disappeared five years ago. Can you tell me
Speaker 2: a little bit about the investigation.
Speaker 3: Initially, police were able to ascertain that after he left
Speaker 3: his host family's home, which was on the north Shore,
Speaker 3: he came into town and got on a train who
Speaker 3: was sent at Britomart, the big transports center in Auckland,
Speaker 3: and then he was seen again on camera in West Auckland,
Speaker 3: and from there they know that he's probably walked ten
Speaker 3: kilometers to the area of Piha Road. That's where his
Speaker 3: cell phone was tracked to and that's where it stopped.
Speaker 3: They checked the area extensively. They went through the bush,
Speaker 3: they went door knocking, they just did everything they could
Speaker 3: in that area to find traces of him, and there
Speaker 3: was just nothing. Some point later on I found a
Speaker 3: T shirt and that was seemed off to be for
Speaker 3: exically tasted, but wasn't his.
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of interest about his disappearance here,
Speaker 2: but also actually in France. I've spoken with the director there,
Speaker 2: Bruno do' pois of a Cappella Productions, about a documentary
Speaker 2: series he actually did, and he's told me it's gotten
Speaker 2: a lot of traction over there.
Speaker 4: In France. We heard a lot about this story because
Speaker 4: at this time it was COVID. I discover by Facebook,
Speaker 4: and I was very concerned because it was very strange.
Speaker 4: We don't heard about the story, and I think it
Speaker 4: was a very very big injustice. And I start to
Speaker 4: work about the story. I ad meet the family and
Speaker 4: promised to help them. So try to understand what's happened
Speaker 4: to Eloid's and after we have to wait for two
Speaker 4: years before can come to New Zealand because you know,
Speaker 4: use lound clothing border to her. To wait is a
Speaker 4: long way a long time. It was very difficult for
Speaker 4: parents that as this done, we can only work with
Speaker 4: Donet with his familiar We tried to find everything about
Speaker 4: his life in use on Brod's activity.
Speaker 2: I think it's important to note one went missing in
Speaker 2: the early days of COVID. Hey, the week after he
Speaker 2: went missing, the WITJO actually officially declared a global pandemic.
Speaker 1: This gives us some insight into how it was. Disappearance
Speaker 1: kind of flew under the radar a bit.
Speaker 3: Hey, Yeah, it absolutely did. And a lot of people
Speaker 3: go missing in New Zealand and turn up later on.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of stories that we do, a
Speaker 3: lot of press releases we get from police saying this
Speaker 3: person is missing, and then a few hours later they've
Speaker 3: been found. We knew that Ala hadn't been found, we
Speaker 3: knew that he was still missing. But also this huge,
Speaker 3: big pandemic was happening at the time, and a lot
Speaker 3: of things just became sort of secondary, I guess in
Speaker 3: the headlines. And that must have been so frustrating for
Speaker 3: his family being on the other side of the world.
Speaker 3: They can't get here to search themselves. But the police have,
Speaker 3: you know, sure that they've just done everything they can.
Speaker 3: They've chased every lead, any tip that's come in, they've
Speaker 3: looked at and if it's you know, if it's something
Speaker 3: they can work with, they have done that. But it
Speaker 3: was such an unprecedented and unknown time in the world,
Speaker 3: and I think that the events of COVID definitely took
Speaker 3: this over for sure. And again, I just cannot imagine
Speaker 3: someone in my family being missing on the other side
Speaker 3: of the world and not being able to physically go
Speaker 3: there and look for them myself and see the area
Speaker 3: and understand what might have been going on.
Speaker 2: So Elua came to New Zealand to study English, and
Speaker 2: as far as his family was aware, he didn't actually
Speaker 2: have any previous mental health concerns. But what kind of
Speaker 2: behavior did he exhibit while he was here.
Speaker 3: Look, there were no red flags for his host family.
Speaker 3: He had planned to go home earlier. He changed his
Speaker 3: flights to go home earlier in the month. I think
Speaker 3: he was due to Goham in late Main and he
Speaker 3: changed his flight to the twenty first. He told friends
Speaker 3: that he was homesick. He felt very lonely here and
Speaker 3: he was missing friends and family. He wanted to just
Speaker 3: go back to France. And he was actually really excited
Speaker 3: because he had a test coming up to get into
Speaker 3: the Air Force and he wanted to go back and
Speaker 3: do that early and move on with that. So he
Speaker 3: was a young person with plans and he was excited
Speaker 3: about his future. But at the same time he was homesick.
Speaker 3: He was speaking about loneliness, and you know, there were
Speaker 3: some other things going on. You know, I think there
Speaker 3: had been a romantic situation that hadn't gone his way,
Speaker 3: and understandably he wasn't feeling great. But even so, his
Speaker 3: friends that he spoke to regularly didn't have any sort
Speaker 3: of huge concerns about him at the time.
Speaker 2: So Bruno, the director I spoke to, actually said from
Speaker 2: the videos that he had seen, they thought maybe it
Speaker 2: was schizophrenia, because you start developing those symptoms around that age,
Speaker 2: But he did say that he's not a psychologist and
Speaker 2: it could have been something else like depression.
Speaker 1: In the months leading up to his disappearance, he had
Speaker 1: apparently fallen in love with a French girl at his class.
Speaker 1: She had a boyfriend who arrived in December. His teacher
Speaker 1: said his mood changes, he started acting weird. He was
Speaker 1: sacked from two restaurant jobs. At one of them, security
Speaker 1: took a video of him ranting and raving after being
Speaker 1: thrown out, and he sends a video to his parents
Speaker 1: saying the owner of the hotel he worked at created
Speaker 1: the coronavirus and said that he wanted to quote kill him.
Speaker 1: One thing, though, for certain, is that Elois felt alone.
Speaker 4: All those students start to judge him has some strange
Speaker 4: guy and if you work very alone. At this time,
Speaker 4: he started to put publication on Facebook and Mastagram, very strength,
Speaker 4: very long, very provocative. He communicate about his bad feeling,
Speaker 4: his sad feeling. He was as sick, but he said
Speaker 4: a lot. He said a lot in the social network.
Speaker 4: Everybody owned him, especially for those students in us school
Speaker 4: rejected him and not him, and I think sam is
Speaker 4: something with markin of kindness. Maybe somebody can help him
Speaker 4: and say, okay, you are sick. We can go in
Speaker 4: the hospitality or doctor and we will help you. That's
Speaker 4: what happened.
Speaker 2: You think basically he was acting strange. He may have
Speaker 2: developed some kind of mental health condition like perhaps schizophrenia,
Speaker 2: and that kind of explains his rational behavior.
Speaker 3: What clues did.
Speaker 2: You find by looking through his social media accounts?
Speaker 4: We find a lot of things and a lot of
Speaker 4: message and message. He was very alone, he feels very
Speaker 4: around and nobody else helps him. He sent a lot,
Speaker 4: a lot and a lot of message to it. And
Speaker 4: when somebody do that, obviously it's for to call help.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: In one message he's sent by a voice message. Everybody
Speaker 4: can see how need help, but they don't. He said it.
Speaker 4: What is also we said it that he understanding himself here,
Speaker 4: He wondered himself about what's happened to him, and he
Speaker 4: said it. He said it a lot and story wat
Speaker 4: this age. But everybody reject you.
Speaker 2: And what have police said about the investigation into Elwat's disappearance.
Speaker 3: Look, they've said all along that it remains open that
Speaker 3: they will follow up any line of inquiry. Any you know,
Speaker 3: in cases like this, they don't stay active on a
Speaker 3: daily basis. You know, police can only do so much
Speaker 3: and then they have to sort of move to the
Speaker 3: next phase of an investigation. So while this is never closed,
Speaker 3: there's not a whole team working on it every day.
Speaker 3: They have promised though, that if there is no new information,
Speaker 3: they'll act on it. And you know, it's a hard
Speaker 3: part of New Zealand when someone goes missing out on
Speaker 3: that west coast. And I don't think a lot of
Speaker 3: people understand that the area our bush is intense. It's
Speaker 3: not just a little forest, it's not just some trees.
Speaker 3: It's really heavy forestation, and it's a really precarious sort
Speaker 3: of you know, ground and terrain, and police can only
Speaker 3: do so much. They employ search and rescue professionals, they
Speaker 3: use dogs, They drones now and heat seeking drones, and
Speaker 3: they've got so many ways to look for people and
Speaker 3: they employ all of those in a case like this.
Speaker 3: They've always said they won't close this case until or
Speaker 3: unless they have really good reason to. There have been
Speaker 3: other cases of people that have gone missing in that area,
Speaker 3: and after a while, the only sort of logical conclusion
Speaker 3: is that they have passed away and those cases have
Speaker 3: been referred to the coroner. Alowa's case hasn't yet and
Speaker 3: police have assured his family and us, you know, multiple
Speaker 3: times that in any new information they will act on
Speaker 3: and it remains open and anyone with information is encouraged
Speaker 3: to come forward.
Speaker 2: So documentary filmmaker Dupois and the Rowlands, they think that
Speaker 2: there are endless scenarios about what could have happened to Elois.
Speaker 4: We really can't know what's happened to you. We really
Speaker 4: can not because we have no information, no clues. So
Speaker 4: I'm not sure. I think maybe my conviction is issues.
Speaker 4: He shoes to live, but probably it went bad, I
Speaker 4: think in first issues, but probably it went bad. But
Speaker 4: I'm sure he didn't suicide. And maybe what he's missing
Speaker 4: now it's a criminal investigation. But to say we have
Speaker 4: no fact investigation, but we have no fact for nothing
Speaker 4: for suicide and no fact for as the believers in
Speaker 4: a bush.
Speaker 1: So the detective in charge of the investigation told The
Speaker 1: Herald in twenty twenty two he thought it was unlikely
Speaker 1: that La made it to the Black Sense of Piha Beach.
Speaker 1: He said, my thoughts are still the bush he's potentially
Speaker 1: tried to take a shortcut to the beach and didn't
Speaker 1: realize how far that would be and overestimated his abilities.
Speaker 1: He said, it's pretty gnarly in there. It is possible
Speaker 1: he's just thought, well, it's like a straight line down there,
Speaker 1: so it shouldn't be a problem, and maybe he's gotten
Speaker 1: into some grief in the bush somewhere.
Speaker 3: The police have always told me that they're keeping an
Speaker 3: open mind. Obviously, the area Alois has gone missing in
Speaker 3: or was last seen in, is that really intense bush
Speaker 3: sort of areas. There's lots of places out there where
Speaker 3: people can slip and fall and have accidents and may
Speaker 3: not necessarily be found quickly. You know, there's people out
Speaker 3: there that have never been found, unfortunately. But police are
Speaker 3: open to any any theory or any you know, they've
Speaker 3: not shut down anything. There's no signs of foul play,
Speaker 3: there's no signs of any sort of kidnapp or you
Speaker 3: suspicious circumstance. But equally, if someone came forward with information,
Speaker 3: you know, the police have said that they will investigate that.
Speaker 3: I just can't imagine what it's like for Alowa's family to,
Speaker 3: as I said, not be able to come here and
Speaker 3: to know and have that closure. There's just so many
Speaker 3: unknowns for them, and you know, unsurprisingly they must constantly
Speaker 3: think about different ways and means that he's gone missing,
Speaker 3: and that must be absolutely torturing for them.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Anna, Thank you. I spoke with Elwa's.
Speaker 5: Parents, Tierry and Katerine and they came to New Zealand
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two where they appealed to the public
Speaker 5: for any information about their son, and they told me
Speaker 5: the five years since Elawa's disappearance just feels like five days.
Speaker 6: We are very we feel very come breaking, very worry
Speaker 6: on the it's very difficult since this DISCIPPL every day,
Speaker 6: every night really think to a war. It's very difficult
Speaker 6: because we have not news of the war. Because of
Speaker 6: the investigations. Police are very difficult for her. It's not
Speaker 6: easy to communicate and every day, the week, every month,
Speaker 6: we try to keep the contact with New Zealand the authority.
Speaker 1: What do you think happens?
Speaker 6: In fact, we always it is safe and in good health.
Speaker 6: But it's very difficult. We have done everything to keep
Speaker 6: open police investigations.
Speaker 7: The police did a lot of suctioning in the area
Speaker 7: where it was disappeared, but she didn't find anything, and
Speaker 7: we still don't know what what happened.
Speaker 2: I have spoken with police and they say the file
Speaker 2: remains open into the disappearance of elir Eloi is still
Speaker 2: a missing person and police continue to follow up any news.
Speaker 7: We are very greatful. We are very grateful because for us,
Speaker 7: it's very important that Ilwa stay in the in the
Speaker 7: main and the main of of the people on the world,
Speaker 7: on the earth. The most important is that the people
Speaker 7: remember one because perhaps they have a testimony. We don't know.
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You
Speaker 2: can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
Speaker 2: at enzid Herald dot co dot nz. The Front Page
Speaker 2: is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is
Speaker 2: also a sound engineer.
Speaker 1: I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
Speaker 2: get your podcasts, and tune in on Monday for another
Speaker 2: look behind the headlines.