The incident was on the 23rd October 2011 at midnight, but there seems no history of a report or an investigation:
CAA Occurrence briefs - Accidents in 2011
There doesn't seem to be any Incident report, I realise the link is to accidents.
Reading between the lines, if the cable jammed and was then cut with the doctor on the ground, uninformed and alarmist bystanders could then assume that the 'cable on the winch snapped'. Probably destined to be one of life's mysteries, unless someone from Te Anau is able to enlighten us!