Coroner Donald MacKenzie is ready to look at whether or not Rivers is lifeless, and if that’s the case, how he died and if the actions of different folks contributed to his dying.
MacKenzie will even study the adequacy of the police investigation into his disappearance.
On Monday, the courtroom heard from the primary witness and one other member of the group, Joe Joe Kantilla-Gaden, who had been pals with Rivers for a number of years. The pair had performed AFL for a neighborhood membership in Balranald.
Kantilla-Gaden instructed the courtroom he gave three statements to police after Rivers went lacking, altering his story to guard the group from COVID-19 associated penalties.
He stated the entire group have been smoking methylamphetamine and consuming alcohol as they travelled in two automobiles to Wippo Creek, after breaking via the gate on the Queensland border.
Household and pals of Jeremiah “Jayo” Rivers talking exterior courtroom on the primary day of an inquest into the 27-year-old’s disappearance. Credit score: Cloe Learn
Kantilla-Gaden stated he went to sleep, and woke as much as discover Rivers lacking. When he requested the others within the group the place Rivers was, they have been “joking” he was down on the dam, Kantilla-Gaden stated.
He then went searching for Rivers, whom he thought-about a brother, calling out for him, earlier than the others joined the search on quad bikes.
They searched into the evening, earlier than transferring to a different camp website close by, Kantilla-Gaden instructed the courtroom, conceding it will have been a greater concept to remain on the final location Rivers was seen.
Kantilla-Gaden later left the camp website to get extra gas at a close-by roadhouse with Matthew Moore, one other member of the group, after they have been intercepted by a police officer, who recognized interstate numbers plates on their automobile.
The police officer escorted Moore and Kantilla-Gaden again to the NSW border. They knowledgeable police of Rivers’ disappearance.
“I didn’t wish to go away Queensland within the first place. I simply needed to remain at Wippo Creek and hold looking out,” Kantilla-Gaden instructed the courtroom.
When questioned why it took virtually three days to report him lacking, Kantilla-Gaden stated: “We knew it was a severe matter, though we have been nonetheless smoking on the time too.”
Kantilla-Gaden later instructed police he came upon at Wippo Creek the others within the group had hashish they have been planning to promote in Indigenous communities within the Northern Territory, as a result of they might make as much as $3000 an oz..
Jeremiah Rivers’ household and pals looked for him after police known as off their seek for the 27-year-old.
The inquest is scheduled to run till Friday.
MacKenzie instructed Rivers’ household within the courtroom he hoped there can be some closure for his family members, regardless of it not being clear but what had occurred.