Lachlan Jones: Grandfather tells of mother’s plan to leave child out of will

Lachlan Jones’ grandfather Graham Jones claimed the three-year-old’s mother told him she would leave Lachlan nothing in her will if she died.

Lachlan was found in a municipal wastewater pond just over a kilometer from his home in January 2019.

Two police investigations found Lachlan accidentally drowned, but his father, Paul Jones, disputes that version of events.

An inquest into Lachlan’s death heard allegations by Paul Jones’s lawyer, Max Simpkins, that Lachlan’s mother, Michelle Officer, and her two eldest children killed the boy, before storing his body in a freezer and then throw it into the sewage pond.

Paul Jones’s father, Graham Jones, said he had no problems with the Officer until one day she said that if she died, Lachlan would not be in her will and only her two eldest children would receive everything.

The officer was not a good mother, Graham said.

“Every time Lachie came into our house with Michelle, the first thing she wanted was food,” Graham said.

“The same thing when Michelle came: we would feed her and she would always come back for seconds.”

When asked if she was suggesting the officer had neglected her son, she responded: “I’m not saying that, I’m just saying he loved his food and always enjoyed it when he came to our house.”

But when the officer’s lawyer, Beatrix Woodhouse, asked her directly if she was a good mother, Graham said no.

He knew the officer had a protective order against Paul Jones, but said his son was a good father.

“I know who Lachie would rather live with,” Graham said.

On the night of Lachlan’s death, Graham felt the boy’s body after his death.

Lachlan felt “absolutely frozen”, he said.

He admitted that he could not be sure what time this occurred, but under questioning he accepted that it could have been after midnight.

Lachlan’s body was found at 11.15pm and he disappeared about two hours earlier.

“I was frozen, I was frozen,” Graham said.

“That little boy was frozen when I felt it. I felt it and his skin didn’t bend or flex at all. He was absolutely frozen and there’s only one other person I’ve ever seen like that and that was my wife, when Ella passed away.”

Graham said he felt his wife’s body at the funeral home a couple of days after her death, but that her and Lachlan’s bodies felt “identical, very much so.”

Graham said that after Lachlan’s death he walked the route police said the boy had taken to reach the sewage ponds and that he did not believe the three-year-old could have taken the path through thistles and trails. stone.

“I don’t think Lachie will be able to walk that distance,” Graham said.