Body snatched from hearse
[NZ]
5:00AM Thursday March 06, 2008
By James Ihaka and Elizabeth Binning
The body of a 76-year-old woman was snatched from the back of a hearse as her grieving family were about to take her to the cemetery for burial.
Ivy May Ngahooro's body was taken yesterday, allegedly by her estranged daughter Joanne, and was last night believed to be lying in a home in Taumarunui - against the dead woman's wishes.
Mrs Ngahooro, who was Pakeha, died on Friday after a long battle with cancer and had been lying at Seddon Park Funeral Home in Hamilton.
She was due to be buried in the city at 11am yesterday - as per her will - but a dispute broke out between her family as she was being loaded into the hearse at 10am.
It is understood Mrs Ngahooro's estranged daughter arrived from Taumarunui with four carloads of supporters wanting to take her mother back to a marae. The group reportedly pulled the coffin from the hearse, loaded it into a four-wheel-drive and left the funeral home.
Mrs Ngahooro's niece Trish Scoble, who is the executor of her will, said the funeral director tried to stop her aunt's body from being taken while other relatives called the police.
The director then followed Joanne's car, which was stopped at a police roadblock where the Maori liaison officer tried to negotiate between the two parties for an hour.
The police were unable to do anything, however, and Joanne and her supporters eventually drove off with the body, leaving Mrs Scoble and her family distraught that a loved one could be snatched so easily.
"We are just in absolute shock at the moment," she told the Herald last night. "We just can't believe this. There is nothing to stop you from coming in and taking someone's body. It's got to be changed."
Mrs Scoble said her family had no idea if they would see Mrs Ngahooro's
body again as they have heard Joanne is planning on burying her at a marae tomorrow.
They are now trying to get an injunction to prevent that from happening and plan to take their case to MPs today.
The Herald last night tracked down Mrs Ngahooro's body to a house in Taumarunui, where a number of cars were lined up on the lawn and people were sitting on the front doorstep.
A woman there, whom the Herald understands to be Joanne, refused requests for an interview. "There's nothing to say. Please get off the property," she said.
Two whanau members parked their cars at the end of the driveway to act as sentries.
Mrs Scoble said Joanne had not seen her mother for many years and Mrs Ngahooro did not want anything to do with her, even in her final months.
"Jo was not allowed anywhere near her. We sat and talked about it lots of times ... If she [Mrs Ngahooro] had wanted Joanne here, we would have got her."
It is understood Joanne heard on Saturday her mother was sick and rang to say she'd be coming to visit but was told it was too late as Mrs Ngahooro had died on Friday.
Mrs Ngahooro was Pakeha but married a Maori man called Fred, whom she left in the 1970s.
She did not specify any Maori traditions in her will, simply stating that she wanted to be buried in Hamilton with some sort of Anglican involvement.
Mrs Scoble said her aunt would be "beside herself" if she knew what was now happening and her nine other children did not agree with what Joanne was doing.
"It's just unbelievable that [Joanne] is putting her through all this. I want her back. I want to see her resting in peace because she's not at the moment."
Police haven't intervened, saying it is a case of "two opposing views within a family" and that they needed to sort the civil matter out between themselves.
"In civil cases there's a fine line to tread and police can't be seen to show favouritism to either party," said Waikato police communications manager Andrew McAlley.
Senior Sergeant Paul Wilton of Taumarunui police said the police were willing to act in a "mediatory role".
"But until we're approached, there's little we can actually do."
POLICE COMPROMISED AS 'MEAT IN THE SANDWICH'
There have been at least two other prominent cases of body snatching in New Zealand over the past year.
In each case, traditional Maori custom was given as the reason for taking the body - despite family members not agreeing with the move.
In September, sources told the Herald the police would refuse to exhume James Takamore after his body was snatched from his partner of 20 years in Christchurch and buried near Opotoki.
The sources said police didn't want to be the "meat in the sandwich" between the different family factions but would also refuse on cultural grounds.
An exhumation order was later granted but was never acted on.
Bay of Plenty district commander Superintendent Gary Smith said at the time that he had heard nothing of rumours that staff in his area would refuse to take part in an exhumation. He police wouldn't act until an amicable agreement had been reached.
Police were strongly criticised later in the year when another "body snatching" case appeared.
Carterton woman Tina Marshall-McMenamin died from a suspected drug overdose and the 25-year-old's father took her body from Lower Hutt for burial on the East Coast.
A High Court injunction required her corpse to be returned to her family, but by the time it was issued Ms Marshall had been buried for several hours.
Ivy May Ngahooro's niece Trish Scoble didn't believe the body snatching was about race. "She [estranged daughter Joanne] didn't get a chance to talk to her and so she's going to make up for it now but she's destroying all of us in the process."
Mrs Scoble's message to Joanne last night was simple: "Can you just do want Aunt May wanted [to be buried in Hamilton] ... These are her wishes and they are not being respected."
Another niece, Catherine Mikkelsen, asked for Joanne to show her mother the "decency she deserved".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10496447
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