Lachlan Gebhardt was only 6 when his father killed him in a fiery crash in North Canterbury. On Friday he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. SAM SHERWOOD speaks to Lachlan’s mum about the pain of losing her “best friend”.
Two-year-old Grace has never met the brother her mother is remembering painfully and fondly.
With Grace on her lap, Kim Manson can almost touch Lachlan Gebhardt’s ashes, which are on a cabinet with about a dozen photos of his infectious smile and some of his favourite things: his motorbike helmet, some action figures, a rugby ball, and his equestrian helmet. On the ground in the corner is a horse made out of ribbons he won.
On the wall is a framed certificate for a G.R.O.W award, a prize handed out to select students at Fernside Primary School near Rangiora, North Canterbury.
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“Lachlan you are the boy who sits up the straightest, earns the most house points and is everyone’s first choice for activities and group work. To teachers, you are a model student. To your peers, you are a great friend, a playmate, a builder, and the best class buddy.”
Lachlan was also Manson’s best buddy. His life was cut short when the car he was in, driven by his father, Niklas Gebhardt, crashed and burst into flames. More than two and a half years on, Gebhardt has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Des Ellery Photography/Supplied
Lachlan Gebhardt, 6, was killed in a car crash driven by his father, Niklas Gebhardt, on November 5, 2019.
‘My best friend’
Lachlan was born on July 9, 2013, to Manson and her then-partner, Gebhardt.
Manson, 23 at the time, says she never had any issues with her first-born, who slept through the night from the beginning.
“You couldn’t wish for a better baby,” she says.
As Lachlan got older he inherited his mother’s love for horses, first sitting in the pram watching mum compete, before he eventually got a pony of his own.
Obsessed with Indiana Jones, Lachlan would often go for a ride on his ponies, Charlie and Oak, wearing a hat with a lasso in his hand. A video on Manson’s Facebook page shows Lachlan with a wide smile riding one of his ponies with his hands in the air.
KAI SCHWOERER/Stuff
More than two and a half years after the crash, Niklas Gebhardt has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
“He was so brave,” Manson says.
“Sometimes he’d be scared, but if you said ‘you’ll be fine’, he trusted you. Whatever you said he believed you.”
He also developed a passion for motorbikes after he was gifted a ride-on. About six months before his death, he started to do little jumps on it. Manson believes he probably preferred the bike as he got older but continued riding horses because he knew his mum liked them.
Manson and Gebhardt split up when Lachlan was about 2. They shared custody, and when he was with mum the two were inseparable.
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Lachlan loved horses and had two ponies of his own.
“We did everything together. He came everywhere with me, we just always hung out. He was just so easy,” Manson says.
“He wasn’t ever fully outgoing and crazy and hyperactive. He was just a good kid, an old soul. He was my best friend.”
The weekend before his death, Manson told Lachlan he was going to be a big brother. His initial response was to ask whether he had to change the nappies and whether he could play with her.
“He was like ‘is she going to want to ride my pony?’ I said ‘I don’t know’, he said ‘I suppose I could share him’. And then he asked where dessert was.”
The crash
Manson and Gebhardt had 50/50 custody of Lachlan from the time he was 6, but they were generally good at alternating days if needed and swapped weekends often.
“We got on for Lachlan,” Manson says.
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Lachlan was also a keen motocross rider.
Manson and Lachlan had planned to go to Australia for a weekend, though it was meant to be his dad’s weekend.
At 8.18am on Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Gebhardt texted Manson, asking if he could have him for a couple of days as it was supposed to be his weekend.
“We’d done this all the time, so I said that’s fine.”
Tuesday was swimming day for Lachlan at Dudley Park Aquatic Centre in Rangiora. Manson worked Tuesday afternoons, so her mum would pick Lachlan up from school and take him swimming.
Manson wanted to tell Lachlan herself that he would be spending the evening with his father so asked her mum to drop him off at work before he went swimming.
She had recently given Lachlan an early Christmas present, a Nintendo Switch, for him to play with on the plane to Australia. He’d spent the day at school telling his best friend, Julius, all about it and planned to play with it that evening, so he was initially reluctant to spend the next couple of days with his father and said he would see him after their trip. He eventually relented.
“I said ‘I’ll see you later’ and gave him a big cuddle.”
Gebhardt parked his blue Mazda Axela outside the aquatic centre about 3.45pm. He was freshly shaven, which Manson’s mum believed may have been for a job interview as he had not worked for about a year.
The two spoke briefly before Manson’s mother left and Lachlan got out of the pool.
SUPPLIED/Stuff
Lachlan loved to ride horses, just like his mum.
At 4.08pm, Gebhardt got into his car and Lachlan sat in the back.
Gebhardt drove out of Rangiora and onto Lehmans Rd, travelling north. He began to accelerate, driving faster than the 80kmh speed limit.
About 1 kilometre before the end of Lehmans Rd, he overtook a car, swerving sharply to avoid a collision with an oncoming car.
He continued driving at high speed before an area where Lehmans Rd turned right sharply and became River Rd.
A sign warned drivers to take the corner at 25kmh, but Gebhardt did not brake or even attempt to slow down.
He drove straight off the road and onto the grass, striking the corner of the 25kmh advisory sign.
The car vaulted off the stopbank, smashed into a tree 24 metres from the road, and burst into flames.
The police serious crash unit later calculated Gebhardt was driving about 130kph when he hit the stopbank.
Members of the public who witnessed the crash rushed to help and called emergency services.
Scrap metal dealer Joseph Bradley was driving home from work when a visibly distressed woman waved him down. She told him people were trapped inside a car that had crashed and was on fire.
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The 6-year-old had been excited about an upcoming trip to Australia with his mum, but was killed just a few days before they were due to leave.
“I just jumped out of the truck … I could see the car was on fire and I couldn’t see any bodies,” he says.
Assuming those in the car would have their seatbelts on, he ran back to his car looking for something, when another man, Kelly Phillips, pulled up behind him.
He asked if he had any tools, and Phillips searched his van, grabbing a small toolbox. The men ran back towards the car.
“We could see this guy in there, and he was lit up, he was on fire. It was basically just flames and a head,” Bradley says.
“I was able to jemmy the passenger’s door open and I just basically pulled him out.”
The pair dragged Gebhardt away from the blaze as the flames intensified. A woman at the scene threw them a blanket, which they used to put the fire burning on Gebhardt out.
Both men asked Gebhardt several times if anyone else was in the car. He eventually told them his son was still inside, but by then it was too late.
“I said to Kelly ‘this has taken too long to get this information, we’re going to kill ourselves if we go back’.”
The car had filled with smoke and Bradley says he knew it would have turned to flame if he opened the door.
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Lachlan, pictured with his mother, Kim Manson.
“It would’ve sent a fireball straight out of the car, and it would’ve cooked me, probably Kelly and anyone within 3 metres.”
The summary of facts states Gebhardt was heard saying he wanted to go back in the car.
“Swap me with my son, I want to swap.
“My son’s in the back, he’s such a good boy, he’s such a nice boy, I want to swap.
“I need a bullet.”
‘I hope they’re OK’
A friend working near the crash scene sent Manson a video of smoke from what she thought was a house fire.
Manson, who was working as a receptionist in Rangiora at the time, recalls thinking “s…, I hope they’re OK”.
About 5.15pm, Gebhardt’s parents called her to check if their son had picked up Lachlan, because they hadn’t heard from him.
She said he had and thought they may have just gone to McDonald’s on the way home.
Then she heard on the radio that a father and his young son had been injured in a crash.
“I had a really bad feeling. I went to the roadblock, and obviously they wouldn’t let anyone go past, and I asked if they could say who it was, was it a blue car? They just said ‘we can’t tell you’.”
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Lachlan and Manson were inseparable. “He was my best friend,” she says.
Manson’s partner took his motorbike to try to get past some of the cordons. At the final cordon he was told police were on their way to the mother’s home.
Meanwhile, Manson received another call from Gebhardt’s parents to say they’d had a call from the hospital, Niklas was there, and they were on their way.
“I said ‘well, do I need to go? Why aren’t they ringing me? Why are you getting rung to say your son is in hospital, where’s mine?’
“That’s when I pretty much knew that it wasn’t good.”
Not long afterwards, two police officers arrived at her home to tell her there had been a crash, they could not say for sure her son was involved due to the state he was in and needed to take some items for DNA testing. It didn’t matter, Manson knew her son was in the car.
“I just dropped to the ground and that was it, then all my friends and family came around. From there it’s just a blur.”
Alice McKay says Manson, her best friend, was initially “catatonic”.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
The crash happened at the corner of Lehmans Rd and River Rd, near Rangiora.
The following day police took Manson and her partner to the scene, where white paint markings identified where Gebhardt had failed to take the corner.
“The police officer explained to me where the car hit and where the car landed and potential speed. There were no brake marks, nothing.”
‘The hardest day of your life’
Lachlan was farewelled at the Harewood Crematorium Chapel eight days after the crash with about 250 mourners in attendance.
It was the “hardest day” of her life, Manson recalls.
They played a slideshow of about 250 photos of Lachlan. About 10 of his classmates, wearing school uniform, sat behind his family. His best friend, Julius, got up with his father and talked about Lachlan.
Julius’ father recalled breaking the devastating news to his son that he would no longer be able to see him. Julius replied he wished he was there to save him, he wished he could make him come back.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Lachlan was killed in a crash in Fernside, Rangiora, which was caused by his father.
“I am going to ask Santa to bring him back and if he can’t, I am going to ask Santa for a robot Lachlan so I can take him to school,” Julius told mourners.
“If I throw my ball up into the sky, I know Lachlan will still catch it.”
Julius finished by saying: “I love you Lachlan, I miss you”.
Letters from his classmates described a good friend who was always kind, and would give them a hug when they were sad.
Manson invited Gebhardt’s parents to Lachlan’s funeral, but did not want any mention of him made there. Manson has not heard from his family since.
Gebhardt, who suffered burns to about 30 per cent of his body and fractured his femur, was charged initially with dangerous driving causing death on Christmas Eve. The charge was later upgraded to manslaughter.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Joe Bradley, left, and Kelly Phillips have become friends after being confronted with the horrific crash scene that claimed the life of 6-year-old Lachlan.
Gebhardt earlier told police he could recall driving along the first part of Lehmans Rd, then nothing until he was on fire and being pulled from the car. He claimed he could not remember anything about the crash or speeding along Lehmans Rd.
The decision not to go back to the car still eats at Bradley, more than two and a half years on.
“Knowing that someone else was in there, that’s something you go to bed with every night.
“It’s still every day I’ve got to tell myself that we made the right decision.”
Following the crash he developed a fear of the dark and couldn’t light the fire at home during winter. He credits the support of his wife and friends in helping him.
He’s also developed a friendship with Phillips, who after the crash asked for his number, so they could catch up. Phillips got in touch a couple of days later, and they’ve formed a “real bond”, catching up regularly for a coffee or a beer.
“For the first six months we talked about the crash and that, but now we just catch up as mates, and we just talk about our lives.”
Phillips says his friendship with Bradley has been “the best therapy”.
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Lachlan should be sharing stories with his sister and improving his swimming, but his life was cut short, his mum says.
‘He should’ve been there’
Manson and McKay baked Lachlan’s birthday cake together every year. For his 1st birthday, it was Winnie the Pooh, his 3rd birthday was Thomas the Tank Engine. For Lachlan’s 7th birthday, they baked him a dragon cake as he was obsessed with the film How to Train Your Dragon.
Family and friends celebrated the birthday together, sharing memories and letting off sky lanterns at Manson’s home.
“We were there to celebrate Lachlan, but it just felt wrong – he should’ve been there.”
Sitting in the High Court in Christchurch on Friday, Manson said it was “small relief” to see Gebhardt plead guilty to manslaughter and be remanded in custody.
Her main feeling towards her former partner is “disgust”.
“There is no way I would ever forgive.”
Manson says she can’t help but think about what she and Lachlan would be doing now if he was still alive.
Every summer, they went to Roxburgh with her partner, where his family lived. One of the highlights of the trip was swimming in the river. Lachlan’s swimming had been improving significantly and 2020 would have been the first time he could swim in the river without a life vest.
He also would’ve been sharing stories with his little sister.
“He would’ve been the best big brother. He was always so helpful with everything.”
Grace is constantly stealing her big brother’s belongings. When she looks at photos of him, she says “brother, brother”, Manson says.
“She knows exactly who he is.”
Fernside Primary School has installed a bench seat in tribute to Lachlan where he used to sit with Julius.
On the bench is a quote from Winnie the Pooh: “A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.”
For Manson, she’s still trying to come to terms with Lachlan’s death.
It doesn’t get any easier, but she is thankful for the support she has received, from family, friends, police and Lachlan’s school.
“They’ve made the most tragic time in our lives a little bit easier.”
She tried counselling, but found tapping therapy, which involves tapping acupressure points around the body, more successful.
“When I used to think about Lachlan I could only think about the crash and I would get really upset, whereas now I think about him and who he was.
“He would have wanted us to try not be sad all the time and for Grace to live a happy life as much as we can until we meet again.”
