In March 2020, 18 year old Eloi Rolland left his homestay on Auckland’s North Shore 

just before dawn. He was a French exchange student - curious, soft-spoken, 

and enchanted by New Zealand’s beauty. That morning he opened Google Maps and searched the word Piha. A remote black-sand beach known for its cliffs, its isolation… and its danger.

He caught a bus, then a train. CCTV caught him walking alone as the city woke up. By 9:18am, his phone pinged one final time along Piha Road in Waitakere Ranges - 

and then… nothing.No more messages. No more movement. No more Eloi.  Police scoured the bushland - dense, silent, and endless - but no trace of him was ever found.

What happened in the misty hills outside Auckland? Did Eloi wander off the track? Fall off the cliffs?  Or was something - or someone - waiting for him there?

Listen as we dive into New Zealand, the case of Eloi Rolland, and how to stay alive on vacation.

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Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360759600/parents-missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-take-search-south-island

https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/124382819/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-friends-and-family-still-have-no-answers-a-year-on?_

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120283016/french-national-eloi-jean-rolland-18-missing-in-auckland

https://www.police.govt.nz/missing-persons/listings/eloi-rolland

https://www.facebook.com/MISSINGELOIJEANROLLAND/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120409689/french-teen-missing-from-auckland-had-troubled-state-of-mind

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120511116/sister-of-fit-smiley-french-teen-missing-in-auckland-desperate-for-answers

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120860887/chances-of-finding-missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-alive-becoming-more-slim

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/family-of-french-teen-eloi-jean-rolland-missing-in-auckland-since-march-reveal-more/5GVRVY5ZNGMZMKKHJGV4YDB3R4/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300097890/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-family-say-theyve-lost-hope-six-months-after-disappearance

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300189370/the-missing-people-of-piha-25-years-six-cases-no-answers

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300201475/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-reportedly-sighted-13km-from-last-known-location

https://www.20minutes.fr/faits_divers/4096164-20240621-disparition-eloi-rolland-nouvelle-zelande-va-declarer-mort-jeune-homme

https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/malgre-labsence-de-corps-la-nouvelle-zelande-va-prononcer-le-deces-deloi-rolland-18-ans-disparu-en-2020-24-06-2024-W2572J4WSNHH7F4NG2S7VJ573M.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbEs-Xku8Y