Christchurch earthquake: Agonising wait continues

The 20-year-old CTV building pancaked. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The body of Janet Meller has probably been lying in the morgue at Burnham Military Camp for 11 days - but the partner of the missing osteopath doesn't know for sure.

Dennis Maddever has been told that 70 bodies were taken from the CTV building in the first days after the earthquake. Few have been formally identified.

Meller, 58, worked for The Clinic, a medical practice that had moved premises to the fourth floor of the building just two weeks before the magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit.

They had moved from their former Gloucester St building because engineers were told it was at risk in the aftershocks from last year's earthquake. That building still stands - but their new offices were pancaked.

Of the 14 medical and administrative staff thought to have been there at 12.51pm, only one - receptionist Pip Lee - is known to have escaped.

"If they hadn't shifted, Janet would still be alive," Maddever said. "I am now trying to deal with a new reality. Janet was a positive person so I have to carry on in that vein."

Over the past days, Maddever has struggled through his daily tasks without power or water. He has allowed police into the house to take away some of Meller's personal belongings for DNA testing.

But mainly, he has waited.

"I understand the police have an incredible amount of pressure," he said. "That process is an international process which has to be adhered to. We have to accept it."

Maddever said he initially held out hope for his partner's survival, until police announced rescue teams had abandoned all hope of finding survivors at the site.

Inspector Dave Lawry has said he was "100 per cent" certain those trapped in the building, including a non-sworn police staff member and a large group of overseas students, were dead. Fires burned in the CTV building and no signs of life had been detected by cameras or listening devices.

"I'm pretty much a realist," says Maddever. "Life has got to go on. I don't want to dwell on why The Clinic shifted out of their old building.

"They evacuated because they thought the building beside it would topple.

"But it is still standing after this earthquake and they moved into a building that collapsed. There is no point in dwelling on that but I hope the engineers learn something from what has happened.

"They haven't found any survivors for well over a week. After two days something like 70 bodies had been removed from the CTV building. I would be very surprised if Janet wasn't one of those," he said.

"She was a strong, resilient, healthy person. But after about 24 hours I had little hope. Who is going to survive that? People who did survive were incredibly lucky. If she was alive the dogs would have found her quickly.

"Until her positive identification you can't be 100 per cent sure but you can't get your hopes up," he said.

"We have to wait for confirmation from the Coroner so we can get on with some sort of service. It won't be a conventional funeral. It will be a life celebration."

Meller arrived in New Zealand in 1987 from Britain, and met Maddever shortly afterwards.

She worked for 23 years as an osteopath mainly treating babies and young children. She has two sons: James, 21, at university in Auckland, and Henry, 17, at high school.

The owners of the CTV building have welcomed a Government inquiry into why the 20-year-old, six-storey building collapsed.

More than 100 people who were in the building are believed to be missing. It housed the regional television station, a nursing school and a language school.

Civil Defence Minister John Carter confirmed specialist rescuers from Japan would be focusing on the CTV site.