Family shocked as grave dug up

Guy Teaonui at his father's graveside after the plot had been restored. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

A woman has been caught allegedly stealing a dead man's suitcase from his grave hours after she was seen mingling with grieving relatives at his burial.

The body of Raymond Teaonui had been in the ground for only an hour when a woman was seen acting suspiciously around his grave at Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland last week.

Cemetery staff moved the woman on but it is alleged she returned during the night and dug up the grave.

Police later found the woman with Mr Teaonui's suitcase - filled with his clothes - which had been buried with him in accordance with his wishes.

The woman has been charged with the graveyard theft and is now before the courts, but that is of little comfort to Mr Teaonui's family, who are shocked at what happened.

His son Guy Teaonui said the family were contacted last Wednesday by funeral directors with the news that his father's grave had been dug up and the suitcase stolen.

"It was devastating. It was bad enough that we were still trying to get over burying him," he said.

Guy Teaonui said the family had been told that a woman had been seen acting suspiciously an hour after the burial.

"We buried him on the Tuesday and at 4.30pm we all left the cemetery."

At 5.30 cemetery staff saw the woman and questioned what she was doing by the grave. "She said that the kaumatua said that she was allowed to dig my father up and take his stuff."

As a concerned staff member picked up a phone to report the woman, she ran off, but allegedly returned that night.

A Waitakere City Council spokesman said cemetery staff noticed the grave had been tampered with while they were doing routine checks the next morning.

When family arrived, they found the grave dug up at the end where the suitcase had been buried. Coathangers - from the clothes inside the case - were scattered around the gaping hole.

Mr Teaonui's sister, Queenie Ryder, said she felt like "somebody had poked a hole" in her heart when she saw the desecrated grave.

"You hear about it on the television and see it in the pictures but you don't see it in real life."

Mrs Ryder said the family went to court to see the woman who had been arrested over the tampering. They were shocked to recognise her from the burial.

"She was standing there looking inside the hole. After that she went around and gave the family a kiss and said, 'Condolences for your loss'."

Mrs Ryder said the woman was not related and was not believed to have known Mr Teaonui.

Mr Teaonui's grave has since been reblessed and filled back in by his sons.

Council spokesman Dai Bindoff said there were regular security patrols at night and the boundary gates were locked to keep vehicles out of the cemetery.

However, he said, the cemetery was the second largest council reserve in the Auckland region and if people wanted to get in there was little that could be done to stop them.

Mr Bindoff said tampering with graves was very rare at Waikumete.

* A 30-year-old unemployed West Auckland woman has appeared in Waitakere District Court charged with misconduct in respect of human remains. She entered no plea and has been remanded on bail until next month.


Grave tampering

The charge: Misconduct in respect of human remains.

The penalty: Up to two years' jail.

The plot: People buy rights to a plot for 60 years, when it reverts to the council. Once covered, a grave can be opened by cemetery managers only if there is a legal reason to do so.