It’s been over a decade since the sunny March morning in 2015, when Mike Zhao-Beckenridge disappeared from his Invercargill school. He’d been picked up by his stepfather, John Beckenridge, who had lost a bitter custody battle with the boy’s mother.

In March 2026, Coroner Elliott reached the same conclusion as Police – that John and Mike died, after their vehicle entered the water on March 20, 2015. Their bodies were lost at sea. He noted that like the investigation: “it is also worth remembering that my conclusions must be based on evidence, not suspicion, speculation or conjecture.”

Inside Operation Mike gives us some insight into John Beckenridge’s chilling downward spiral which resulted in one of the most tragic of crimes. The documentary has been 9 years in the making. It sensitively presents one of Aotearoa’s most extensive and fastidious investigations, led by a Police team, who wanted answers, both for Mike’s family and the truth.