Man charged with ransom bid for ashes remanded

A man who allegedly demanded a ransom for the return of a dead man's stolen ashes entered no plea when he appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday facing 13 charges.

Douglas Morris, 29, of Rotorua, was further remanded in custody until October 31.

Some of the counts he faces relate to trying to extort money from a woman after taking a funeral urn containing her father's ashes in a burglary, stealing her $63,000 late-model Mercedes-Benz car and offences resulting from a three-hour, high-speed police chase across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty last Thursday. Morris is charged jointly in several cases with Katikati brothers Mark Anthony Harris, 33, and Richard John Harris, 31. Those include three charges of aggravated assault on police officers, stealing more than $5000 of building equipment, unlawfully getting into and taking a motor vehicle, failing to stop, reckless driving and resisting arrest.

The Harris brothers were also remanded in custody without plea until the end of the month.

The trio made an initial appearance in court last Thursday after being arrested the previous day following the police chase.

A fourth man who appeared in court last week, William Leathers, jointly faces, with Morris, a charge of blackmail. The 47-year-old from Rotorua is also charged with being an accessory after the fact of burglary and making a false statement.

He was arrested after laying a complaint at the police station that his car had been stolen. Leathers is on bail without plea until October 26.

Police named Morris as a suspect after the burglary of a Mt Maunganui woman's home last month. Cash, jewellery, computer equipment and an urn containing her father's ashes were allegedly loaded into the owner's champagne-coloured 2006 Mercedes and taken away.

A few days later, the middle-aged woman began getting text messages demanding a ransom for the return of the urn and the car. She was asked to meet a man at Papamoa.

But the offender, apparently twigging to an undercover police sting, took off in a Mitsubishi. Police later found it dumped with the urn in the boot. They also recovered the Mercedes.

Morris and his alleged co-offenders were arrested after a chase which began in Putaruru and ended three hours later at a property west of the Kaimai Ranges.

- NZPA