A man was found dead in a sinkhole on his property after his family became concerned they had not heard from him for several days, his father says.

Peter Micheal Miller, 38, was found dead at a rural property on Pigville Rd, Tākaka around 60km from Nelson at about 4pm on March 12.

His death is being treated by police as unexplained.

The day before, a relative of Miller posted on a local community Facebook page asking if anyone had seen him.

“Usually [he] stays in contact, but we haven’t heard from him in a while. We are getting worried.”

Locals offered to go to his house to see if they could find him. One person said they went to his property and both of his cars and motorbike were there.

“Had a good look for him, but no sign of Pete. The police are involved now and have requested that no more people visit the site in case of an investigation. Hoping our friend Pete is safe and well.”

Miller’s father, Ian Miller, told the Herald today that his son had fallen down a tomo, also known as a sinkhole, at his property.

His son knew the area “like the back of his hand”, he said.

“There was a big tomo just outside his backdoor. So basically he’d fallen into the tomo and broken himself to death,” he said. Tākaka is known for its large number of sinkholes in the area.

Peter Micheal Miller, 38, was found dead at a rural property on Pigville Rd, Tākaka, at about 4pm on March 12. His death is being treated as unexplained.

“There’s no suggestion whatsoever what anything untoward happened. It was just purely an accidental death as far as we are concerned. Obviously, the police are looking into it, but I don’t think they will find anything untoward.”

Miller said the family became concerned after they had not heard from him for several days.

“It was extremely unusual for him, and it was only that a couple of friends of his went up there and they found him.”

He described his son as an “amazing young man”.

“He was studying for a degree in sustainability at Victoria University. He was widely travelled, he’d spent a long time in Europe, five or six years, and he had friends all over the world.

“The family is totally devastated. Losing a son is not something you expect. He had his whole life ahead of him.”

Ian Miller last spoke to his son a couple of weeks ago when he went to visit him in Paparoa.

“We’d spent quite a bit of time together, we’d had some really good yarns, nothing that we knew further to say to each other. I’m really, really glad that he took the time to come up here.”

On Wednesday, a police spokeswoman said a post-mortem was completed on Monday.

“The death is still unexplained, and formal identification is still expected to take some time – this process involves the Coroner so it is difficult to put a timeline on it.

“Meanwhile, police are progressing with further inquiries where we can.”

Tākaka tomo rescues

There have been several incidents reported of people plunging down sinkholes in Tākaka.

In 2014, a Nelson doctor checking an orienteering course plummeted 10m onto dead animals.

Dr Jill Clendon had been out on Tākaka Hill, near the Ngarua Caves, when she came across the sinkhole, which was much larger than she thought.

“We found this site where we were planning to put a (orienteering) control so went down to put my little tag there and lo and behold it turned into a bit bigger than a little depression,” she said.”

“I fell straight into the hole and screamed,” she told the Herald soon after her rescue.

Clendon checked herself for injuries and was amazed she wasn’t badly hurt.

“I’m really lucky. I might need stitches to the knee, got a good bash to the head and some cuts and scrapes and bruises, but otherwise I’m all good.”

In 2006, a 12-year-old girl, fell down a 10m deep cave hidden in the ground during a birthday party treasure hunt.

The girl’s leg was “swollen and sore” afterwards but was not broken.

“I’ve got lots of cuts and bruises and scratches,” she told the Herald at the time.

One of the rescuers, from the Nelson-Marlborough Rescue Helicopter, said at the time it was “fairly common” to rescue people from tomos, especially the large Harwood Hole on Tākaka Hill, in which some people had died.

Sam Sherwood is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers crime. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2022, and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.