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Police have yet to decide whether to charge a man who fatally shot a teenage hunting companion.
Taradale High School student Aron Timms is to be farewelled today at a service at the Napier War Memorial Centre.
The 18-year-old was shot during a deer-hunting expedition near Tarawera, on the Napier-Taupo Highway, on Saturday.
He was due to celebrate his 19th birthday the following day.
Police have not released details of the man who shot him but he is understood to be the father of Aron's girlfriend.
Detective Sergeant Sean Hansen said yesterday that no decision had been made on whether to charge the man because an investigation into the fatality was not complete.
"Once the investigation is complete, we'll sit down and review all the facts that we've gathered and at that stage we'll make a decision about what, if any, charges will be laid."
Mr Hansen said nothing would be decided before Easter and it was possible police would seek a legal opinion before concluding the inquiry.
"It's serious in that a death has occurred. We need to work through it and we need to make sure that we dot the Is and cross the Ts."
Several witnesses had been spoken to but Mr Hansen would not reveal if they included other hunters in the area at the time.
Initial inquiries had revealed that Aron was shot after he and his two hunting companions separated, and he was mistaken for a deer when he entered the bush from a roadway.
Aron's family remained too distraught to comment yesterday but the incident has prompted calls from some hunters for tougher penalties for those who do not properly identify their targets.
Dave Comber of the Taupo Deerstalkers Association said manslaughter charges should be considered in such situations.
He told Rotorua's Daily Post that people who hunted with firearms had a "duty of care" and if they shot a person rather than an animal, they were not practising that care.
