A neighbour tried to convince a woman to give up her dead husband's body that had lain in a Porirua flat for weeks, it's been reported.
The unbearable smell finally forced neighbours to call the police on Sunday.
They found the man's whose badly decomposed body inside the couple's Titahi Bay home.
The man's wife was thought to have lived alongside the body for weeks and police are exploring the possibility they had stumbled upon a religious after-death ritual, Fairfax reported.
The man is suspected to be Debiprasad Majumdar, but his name has not yet been confirmed by police.