It was only revealed when bodies in a public mausoleum were disinterred after damage from Cyclone Gabrielle, and grieving families discovered what had happened.
NZ Herald reporter Raphael Franks told The Front Page that a high level of shame contributed to families not coming forward about this sooner.
“They’ve told me that they feel a great sense of shame, a huge embarrassment that this has happened to their relatives, so they have been really reluctant to come out.
“But they’ve just felt it’s been swept under the rug for too long, they really wanted it out there, and they want to warn people of, you know, what Bakulich is potentially up to.”
Bakulich, who featured in The Casketeers, is no longer employed by Tipene Funerals Limited, Francis Tipene confirmed to the Herald.
The company did make a complaint to police about the case, but it was dropped due to insufficient evidence. New complainants have come forward following the Herald’s investigation, and the case has now been passed on to the Auckland City Criminal Investigation Branch.
The revelations come as the ‘cost of dying’ rises across the country.
Data released by the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand shows that burial and cremation costs to councils have risen by 50% in the last year.
Costs also vary around the country, with New Plymouth the most expensive place for a burial at $7207, while Taupō will only cost you $1170.
The organisation’s chief executive, Gillian Boyes, told The Front Page that the costs of land and servicing burial grounds differ between councils.
“In some of the areas where there have been really quite significant jumps in cost, we’ve been told there’s been a change in contractor. So the council contractor costs have gone up, and that’s why you’ve seen those huge leaps.”
As for funeral directors and service prices, the cost-of-living crunch is seeping into the afterlife.
“The salary costs for the staff at the funeral home have probably gone up,” Boyes said. “The materials costs will have gone up. Everything from the cost to manufacture caskets going up to chemicals and supplies. The catering costs have probably gone up because they’re running businesses as well and their food costs have gone up. So it is across the board.”
If people are looking to save costs on a funeral, Boyes said that scaling back - not having slideshows or limiting guests to keep catering costs down - would help make funerals themselves cheaper, but the costs of burial, interment, or cremation are more fixed.
“I think sometimes we get caught up with trying to respect people’s wishes, but forgetting that we’ve got needs ourselves.”
Listen to the full episode for more on the accusations facing Fiona Bakulich and Tipene Funerals, and what the Funeral Directors Association has to say about trust, rising costs, and ways to save.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
