Discovery of body halts inquest into NZ woman's death

A Queensland inquest into the suspected murder of a former Wairarapa woman has been adjourned after police said a body had been found.

Family and friends of Cynthia Greenwood-Smith had gathered at Southport Magistrate's Court on the Gold Coast on Friday for a coroner's inquest into her disappearance and possible murder.

But they were shocked when the police prosecutor assisting the coroner sought an adjournment.

"A body has been found that could be the deceased," Acting Senior Constable Peta Eyschen told the court.

A police spokesman said later that human remains had been found on the New South Wales mid-north coast about six weeks ago, although there was no guarantee they were those of Mrs Greenwood-Smith, a former legal secretary who was 53 when she disappeared from her Gold Coast home on September 1, 2001.

"I was absolutely stunned," Mrs Greenwood-Smith's niece, Cathy Adams, from Auckland, said. "We're all just really annoyed nobody was told."

Police said no one was told of the possibility that human remains could be those of Mrs Greenwood-Smith because they were yet to be positively identified.

Police made an extensive investigation into Mrs Greenwood-Smith's disappearance, but it was feared her 55-year-old husband, Ross, might have taken the answer to his grave after taking his own life three weeks after she disappeared.

Suspicions of foul play grew after women's clothes, jewellery, perfume and other personal items were discovered under a false bottom of a partly completed pool on the couple's 4ha property at Upper Coomera.

Close friend Anne Sinclair said Friday's revelation met mixed emotions from those who knew the couple.

"We would be really pleased if this turns out to be Cynthia. Then we can put closure to it and she can have a decent burial. She deserves it," she said.

Mrs Greenwood-Smith, from Masterton, regularly visited her family there before her disappearance. She was believed to have worked in Sydney as a legal secretary before being made redundant and retiring to Queensland.

The inquest has been adjourned until January 30, pending the results of forensic testing.

- NZPA