A Kiwi who was holidaying in Bali in June 2015 said she was "100 percent sure" she recognised a man and boy on the beach to be missing New Zealanders Mike Zhao-Beckenridge and his stepfather John Beckenbridge.
The witness was giving evidence during a coronial hearing at Christchurch, which is being held to determine if the pair, who have been missing for eight years, are dead or alive.
According to the witness, who cannot be named, she thought she saw the pair on Bali's Gili Air island while on holiday there.
The witness said she recognised them from the recent media reporting about the missing pair.
"I was 100 percent sure that it was John and Mike Beckenridge that I saw," she told the court, adding she was now "85 percent" certain it was the pair after seeing photos of them looking less relaxed.
This witness' account was one of 60 reports of potential sightings of the pair.
The woman immediately rang her father in New Zealand, who then rang police. She was advised to report the sighting to local police but there was no station on the island.
She managed to speak to a policeman from Lombok, who was visting the chief of Gilli Air island. A poster of the pair was subsequently distrubuted around Gili Air.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court heard Beckenridge's house in central Otago's Lake Hayes was searched after the pair's disappearance - with Sgt Frederick Shandley describing the property as being in an immaculate condition.
The court on Tuesday heard evidence of how fractured the relationship between Mike and his mother was, with the 11-year-old sending his 64-year-old stepfather a series of emails desperate to be reunited.
"How my life is shit... I hate my mom in fact she is not even my mom she f**ked my life up so bad i hate her I have no love for, I hope she die [sic] painfully," one email said.
The purpose of the hearing is for coroner Marcus Elliot to rule whether they are dead or alive. Mike's mother believes her son is still alive and his disappearance was staged by her ex-husband.
On March 13, 2015, Beckenridge breached a parenting order when he went to his stepson's school and picked him up before heading to the Catlins, an exposed area at the bottom of the South Island, where they camped at various locations.
Beckenridge's car was found at the bottom of sheer cliffs near Curio Bay in the Catlins along with other things belonging to the duo including a tent, sleeping bags and empty fuel containers at a campsite - but the pair has never been heard from nor their bodies found.
The coroner's hearing continues.
