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A woman who buried her brother last month claims the Waikato funeral service they used lied about upfront costs and, in her view, failed to properly prepare the body, which had maggots coming out of some body parts.
On the assumption that the Hamilton funeral service was qualified, she expected they would provide communication through the whole process, and “tell me where they were taking my baby brother to be embalmed”, which she claims did not happen.
Bay of Plenty woman Lucy’s brother Tuirirangi (Tui) died suddenly aged 27 on February 14. Lucy did not want her surname used.
The family were initially dealing with a Whakatāne funeral home to take care of the funeral.
Lucy said an employee visited, explained the process to the family, and took Tui’s body.
From a letter provided to the Herald, it is understood the body was taken to Rotorua on the morning of February 17, on the direction of the coroner.
Tuitirangi (Tui) of Bay of Plenty passed away on February 14, and his sister was horrified by the alleged treatment received from a Waikato funeral home.
Lucy said the family were struggling financially and were trying to come up with a plan to cut costs for the funeral when Majestik Funeral Services, of Hamilton, was raised as an option.
The service was run by the brother of a family member’s partner, so the family decided to switch to Majestik.
As she knew of Majestik Funeral Services director Maui Te Poono, Lucy said she didn’t think to research the service and instead put “full trust” into him.
Lucy said she hadn’t met Te Poono previously, and didn’t know him personally.
“I thought I could grieve my baby brother and let them take over ... I feel so dumb,” Lucy told the Herald.
Lucy claims Te Poono told her and other whānau members via a video call that the Whakatāne funeral service Willetts required a $5000 upfront payment to release the body – without any further services provided.
Another sister of Tui’s the Herald spoke to claimed she was also present in the video call when Maui said Willetts required that upfront payment.
In a letter provided to the Herald, Willets told Lucy that “it is not within our responsibility or ability to ‘release’ the tūpāpuku [body] from this process” and that “there is no costs to the family for this”.
Despite the family being told a payment of $5000 was required in order for the body to be released, the Herald understands the $5000 was never paid by Lucy’s family and despite this, Majestik Funeral Services proceeded to pick up Tui from the Rotorua Mortuary before returning the body to the family’s Te Teko home at 10pm.
Lucy said the family, with Te Poono still in attendance, strapped Tui into his woven coffin and put him in a room to lie in state.
She claimed when she returned to the room five minutes later, she was shocked to see “a maggot wriggling out of his mouth”.
“I asked [Te Poono] why, and he said when Tui was being embalmed they saw a black spot on his stomach and [thought] this might happen ... [but] no proper explanation [was provided],” Lucy told the Waikato Herald.
“We were waiting for a solution on how to clean him but it never came.”
The next morning, Lucy claimed, she approached Tui’s coffin again to find further maggots crawling out of his mouth, eyes, and ears.
They then took Tui’s body to their local marae.
Despite the family’s best efforts, Lucy said maggots continued to appear on the body until his burial on February 20.
“I never slept on the last night with my baby brother. I just stayed up crying all night reflecting on the whole process, apologising to him.”
Tui’s other sister told the Herald she could “vouch” that there were “loads of maggots” coming out of his body parts, and over the days till his burial, they were “constantly picking them off” themselves.
It was only after the burial that Lucy discovered there was no upfront charge from Willets to get the body released.
Lucy told the Herald she reported Majestik to the police, complaining about the request for upfront payment and the treatment of the body. Police then referred her to the Funeral Directors Association.
Gillian Boyes, chief executive of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand.
The association told her Majestik Funeral Services didn’t own a mortuary and wasn’t registered with them, so they would not be able to investigate.
Lucy said she was “traumatised” by her experience with Majestik, and wanted to warn others to take precautions when it came to selecting funeral homes.
Funeral Directors Association comment
Funeral Directors Association chief executive Gillian Boyes said Majestik had not applied to be a member of the association. It is not a legal requirement to be registered with the association.
Potential members needed to meet strict criteria, including having a national qualification in funeral directing and being employed by a firm that is currently a member of the association or an affiliate member firm.
They also needed to be in business for a certain period. However, it is not a legal requirement for a funeral director to be registered with the association.
Boyes said according to her knowledge, Te Poono had worked in the industry for a short period but was not qualified, and did not operate out of a funeral home premises.
“[Recently] one of our board members was rung by Maui asking if their funeral home could hold the body of a child as they didn’t have premises,” she said.
“Maui has [also previously] asked some of our member firms if they will embalm for him and they have declined. We are not sure where he is getting embalms done at present.”
Regarding the embalming process of Tui, Boyes said she was also unsure how Majestik returned the body to the family so quickly.
“Experienced embalmers would caution a family to keep the body at the funeral home for a period after so they can check on the condition post the embalm.”
She said maggots can occur “even with the most careful embalming”, depending on air temperatures, how long a body has been outside and whether basic precautions, such as nets over the face in a casket, are used.
Boyes said they couldn’t investigate Majestik Funeral Services or Te Poono as they weren’t a member.
However, Lucy’s case had alarmed the association and prompted them to issue a warning to the public to say there were standards funeral homes should meet.
“We know that New Zealanders really value the work funeral directors do, but we want them to know some funeral directors may be taking shortcuts in terms of their legal, and particularly their ethical obligations.”
All funeral directors in New Zealand must comply with legal requirements around the care of a deceased in the Burials and Cremations Act, the Fair Trading Act, and the Consumer Guarantees Act.
In her view: “The issue [in Lucy’s case] was the lack of information provided to the family and the appalling follow-up response when the issue was discovered.”
Boyes said funeral directors who were members of the association would have access to resources and training.
On the Careers New Zealand website it says there are no specific requirements to become a funeral director or embalmer.
The Waikato Herald approached Te Poono for comment several times over the past two weeks.
On March 7 Te Poono replied by text, “I have spoken with my lawyer who has given some advice.”
He included text he said was from his lawyer.
It said the client wished to make no comment until a resolution could be found among the family and the person making the allegations.
On March 17 Te Poono told the Waikato Herald by text he would issue a statement at a later date as a “mediation is taking place between the family and the person making the allegations”.
However, Lucy claims there is no mediation process taking place.
