Julie Butler’s case has been referred to the Coroner, sixteen months after she and her schooner went missing from Great Barrier Island.
Police have referred Julie Butler’s case to the Coroner, sixteen months after she and her 18 metre aluminium topsail schooner, Blazing Shadz, were reported missing from Kaiaraara Bay on Great Barrier Island.
Butler, 55, had lived aboard the schooner for at least ten years, based between Ōpua and Whangārei Harbour, and was described by Northland harbourmaster Jim Lyle as a highly competent sailor. A partner agency reported concerns for her welfare on 4 April 2025, though police haven’t said why, only that concerns were raised. Three days later, on 7 April, officers checked her usual mooring and found the boat gone, and what happened in that gap has never been established. The search that followed drew in the Maritime Unit, Coastguard, local harbourmasters, and her own family and friends, and was slowed early on by bad weather around the island.
New Zealand law doesn’t require a body for a coronial finding of death. A coroner can inquire where police believe someone is dead and the body has been destroyed, can’t be recovered, or is simply lost, weighing things like the circumstances of the disappearance, the total loss of contact, and inactivity on bank accounts. If a coroner concludes someone is probably dead, that death can be registered with Births, Deaths and Marriages, and a certificate issued from there. That’s the process Butler’s case is now entering.
