Coroner releases tragic details of university student’s last months before planned suicide

Warning: This story reports on suicide and mental health.

A coroner has released the harrowing details of a teenager’s last months before she died by suicide, including how she’d planned her death and hid her mental health from those closest to her.

Lincoln University student and passionate young environmentalist Zoe Luffman, 18, died by suicide on July 18 last year at her hall of residence. She was found in her dorm room a number of days after her death.

A coroner’s report released on Thursday outlined the mental health decline of the over-achieving student, during her final year of college and her time at a hall of residence.

The report also remarked how Luffman’s diary entries “catalogue her planned efforts” and the student hid her struggles from family and friends.

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“Zoe’s diary, letters and other documents written in anticipation of her death, stand as witness to her episodic despair and her growing determination to end her life. The records show that Zoe was keeping her growing anxieties private, allowing glimpses only to family and friends,” Borrowdale’s report said.

Borrowdale outlined how in mid-2019, Luffman had become “uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn, with a very low mood”.

“Zoe’s parents and college confided their concerns to each other. It transpired that Zoe had been frequently seeing the college guidance counsellor, but that she had not told Andrew and Julie [her parents] about this. Zoe was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for assessment and treatment”

“CAMHS identified that Zoe was suffering from anxiety and low mood, triggered (at least in part) by recent bereavements among family and friends”.

The report also saw Borrowdale point out where family and friends can go to get help – and said if someone has attempted suicide and there are concerns about their immediate safety, it was important to take them seriously.

“Thank them for telling you, and invite them to keep talking. Ask questions without judging.”

She then suggested calling a mental health crisis service or taking the person to the emergency department at the nearest hospital.

“If they are in immediate danger to themselves or others call 111. Remain with them and help them to stay safe until support arrives.”

The work of the passionate young environmentalist will continue despite her death, with the formation of a fund to help uplift and support other like-minded females in her home province.

As a former Marlborough Girls’ College student, Luffman became an environmental titan in her community from a young age.

Aged 10, she began an annual clean-up on the beach she grew up just minutes from in Rarangi. She also learnt to scuba dive so she could deep clean the ocean around the Marlborough Sounds.

Within seven years the Rarangi beach clean-up had made a substantial difference to the environment and the two trucks and a trailer load of rubbish gathered in the first year was reduced to one pick-up truck by 2021 – something she had hoped would continue when she left for university in 2022.

“I just want people to continue to make it the place that it deserves to be,” she told Stuff in May 2021.

Passionate about raising awareness around ocean pollution, Luffman believed her generation was leading the change needed to protect the environment.

Luffman chose not to attend the School Strike for Climate in May 2021 in favour of planting trees at Grovetown Lagoon, because she believed her role on that day was to do something constructive.

In the same year, Luffman and fellow student Nicole Geyser continued to push for change when they worked on a project where they studied marine restoration and human centric values as opposed to environmental ones.

The pair met with Marlborough mayor John Leggett in December to deliver their environmental sustainability study presentation that focused on how administration of current policies and legislation focused on enabling and supporting human activities and values.

Instead, the pair believed in concepts and values associated with the wairua and mauri of the natural world and oceans.

Ultimately the pair wanted their research to inspire the Marlborough District Council, Department of Conservation and other government agencies to instigate widespread change, saying it was urgent.

After former Marlborough Girls College students met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to press for marine protection in the Marlborough Sounds in 2019, Luffman and Geyser also took the opportunity to challenge the mayor and the prime minister as to why nothing had been done.

Luffman’s work in both the beach clean-ups and her studies led to her being awarded the 2021 Seaweek Ocean Champion Challenge.

At the time, New Zealand Coastal Society co-chair Amy Robinson spoke of how impressed they were with Luffman’s leadership and the example she was setting for rangatahi in New Zealand.

Luffman began a beach litter monitoring campaign at Long Island in the Marlborough Sounds in 2019 that has since been continued by Marlborough Girls College students.

Uninhabited, Long Island is the only marine reserve in the Marlborough Sounds but Luffman still found 12.5kg of litter on her first survey trip. The data collected has been used by the Ministry for the Environment as an important tool in marine domain reporting.

In the same year, Luffman’s leadership was recognised when she was one of 50 teens chosen from hundreds of applicants to attend the Sir Peter Blake Youth Enviro-leaders Forum that has since been renamed BLAKE Inspire.

For Luffman it was a chance to meet other like-minded teenagers, and she expressed to Stuff how thrilled she was to be chosen.

“I’m really honoured. I wasn’t expecting to be accepted at all and to get in on my first application was the best moment of my life.”

By then Luffman was set on having a career in either environmental science, marine biology or zoology.

Since her death, environment groups have expressed how inspirational her leadership was. That leadership was also recognised when she won the Marlborough Youth Civic Award in 2017.

Soon after she died, Conservation Kids NZ and Envirohub Marlborough social media post said they felt “incredibly privileged to have shared Zoe’s journey, watching her follow her heart and pursue a life filled with making this world a better place”.

The groups sparked Luffman’s environmental passion when she joined as a 7-year-old, and said she was considered a “cherished friend and much-loved ocean hero”.

“Zoe truly inspired us all over the years, and we look forward to sharing the wonderful memories and celebrating the life of the exceptional young woman that she was.”

Another social media post on Seaweek said Luffman had left a legacy, and she would always be remembered for her passion for the ocean and care for the environment.

In the same week the coroner’s report into Luffman’s death was released, Envirohub Marlborough publicly announced the launch of the Zoe Luffman Environmental Fund to help young women in Marlborough aged between 13 and 18 support local environment projects.

Zoe Luffman is survived by her parents Andy and Julie.

Support agencies offering counselling and support:

• Lifeline – 0800 543 354

• Samaritans – 0800 726 666

For children and young people

• Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email [email protected] (for young people, and their parents, whānau and friends)

• What’s Up – 0800 942 8787 (for 5–18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)

• The Lowdown – visit the website, email [email protected] or free text

5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)

• SPARX – an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.