Body of teenager missing in Hutt River washes up in Wellington Harbour

Saturday, 4 February 2017

Karaka bay road residents sue ad Michael Barnett recount waking up to find police cordoning off the side of their road after a body washed up on the rocks

A body that washed up on the shores of Karaka Bay in Wellington has been identified as the teenager who vanished while swimming in the Hutt River.

The discovery was reported by a member of the public at 7am on Saturday. Karaka Bay lies on the northeast coast of the Miramar Peninsula, near the entrance to Wellington Harbour.

Police later confirmed the body was the 19-year-old man who went swimming with a friend in the rain-swollen Hutt River on Thursday night and was reported missing later that evening.

Michael and Sue Barnett saw the body washed up on the rocks outside their home in the Wellington suburb of Karaka Bays.

The death will be referred to the coroner.

The spot on Karaka Bay Rd, in Wellington, where the body of a 19 year-old who went missing in the Hutt River was discovered.

Karaka Bay Rd residents Sue and Michael Barnett were woken about 8am by police cars outside their front door.

Police had to move quickly to remove the body because of the rising tide, they said.

Search and rescue teams scour the Hutt River for the missing swimmer on Friday.

'The police had cordoned off the side of the road,' Sue Barnett said. 'The police handled it very discreetly. They wouldn't let anyone near the body.'

From the couple's top window they could just make out the body.

Flood damage along the Hutt River on Friday.

'It was just a shape,' she said. 'There were about six police cars, and we had just been reading The Dominion Post and read about the body being missing.'

Michael Barnett is a keen sailor, and being familiar with the currents in the area said it was not unusual for something to travel all the way from the mouth of the Hutt River, on the northern side of the harbour, and wash up on the beach.

Heavy rain saw the Hutt River level surge to five times its normal height on Thursday night, about the time the two men went swimming.

The dead man and a friend were swimming in the river, near Belmont School in Lower Hutt, late on Thursday night during heavy rain.

Hutt City Council's river level recordings from the past week showed that before the rain, the river had a depth of between 1.1 and 1.3 metres at the Birchville monitoring station, which is close to the standard level in fine weather.

By 8pm on Thursday, the Birchville station recorded a 5.6m-high torrent surging through.

Police received a report at 10.30pm that the young men had been swimming, and one of them was unable to find his friend.

A search team was sent out but could not find the missing swimmer.

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