5 Nov 2019

Student's body unfound at Canterbury hostel up to a month - Coroner

From Checkpoint, 5:20 pm on 5 November 2019

The electronic footprints of a Canterbury University student who lay dead for weeks before being found have been outlined at a coronial inquest into his death.

The inquest into Mason Pendrous' death is underway at the Christchurch District Court, after he was found in Canterbury University's Sonoda hall of residence on September 23.

The coroner's ruled the 19-year-old's body lay unnoticed in the campus accommodation for between two and four weeks.

The court was told his computer activity ramped up substantially in the weeks before he's suspected to have died - but his exact cause of death has yet to be established.

RNZ reporter Eleisha Foon was in court and filed this report.