Pauline Hanna was found dead in her Remuera home on Easter Monday. Photo / Supplied
Pauline Hanna was found dead in her Remuera home on Easter Monday. Photo / Supplied
Eleven days after the unexplained death of health worker Pauline Hanna, police have completed their scene examination of her Remuera home.
Detective Inspector Aaron Pascoe today said police were still investigating the death at the Upland Rd property and were now awaiting "various results and analysis".
Hanna, 63, was found dead in the home she shared with her eye specialist husband Philip Polkinghorne on Easter Monday.
The Counties Manukau District Health Board executive project director was farewelled in a service at Saint Mary's-in-Holy-Trinity yesterday.
The service included touching moments, including bubbles filling the air and a string quartet playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons during a photo tribute.
Pauline Hanna was farewelled at a funeral at St Mary's-in-Holy-Trinity yesterday. Photo / NZ Herald
Friends, family and colleagues described Hanna as a career woman who spent 30 years in healthcare, and enjoyed cooking, reading, and fitness. Noted for her elegance and style, she was regarded as a woman who could lend her hand to almost anything.
Taine Polkinghorne described his stepmother as the "glue" of the family.
He said his father and Pauline met in the 90s at Auckland City Hospital in the ophthalmology department.
"She described us three kids as her 'ready-mades'," he told those gathered to pay their respects.
Philip Polkinghorne earlier told the Herald his wife was a "remarkable woman" and described the loss as "insurmountable".
He said their relationship wasn't just fine, "it was perfect".
"She was incredibly hardworking, a magnificent woman who worked very hard for her community - she gave everything she had to make a success of the Covid programme making sure the hospitals had the right equipment and supplies. She worked night and day, [Easter] Sunday was the last time she had a bit of time off," he said.
Pauline Hanna and husband Philip Polkinghorne in 2018. Hanna was found dead in her home on Easter Monday. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
He said Hanna worked all through Easter but they were able to spend some time together on Sunday. The couple went to Highland Park where Hanna checked in on one of the vaccination stations before having lunch together and going home. After dinner, the pair watched television together and Hanna helped him write a letter.
"I said goodnight to her. I went to bed and she went to bed. That was the last time I saw her alive."
The following day Polkinghorne got up to make breakfast around 7am. The pair had planned to go to the gym after breakfast.
"I got up to make her tea and toast – that's what she always had. She is the only person in the world that I know who can have a cup of tea lying on her back," Polkinghorne said.
"Then I found her dead. It was just horrible, horrible, horrible."
Polkinghorne said he did not believe there had been an intruder because the house was alarmed and monitored.
"Pauline was a beautiful lovely, lovely, lovely lady. I failed her. I failed her. I don't want to have to remember anything about her I just want her to come back into my life."
With the police inquiry already well into its second week, former detective Lance Burdett told the Herald it sounded like a homicide inquiry.
The police examination of Pauline Hanna's Upland Rd house took 11 days. Photo / Michael Craig
"If it's going on for any length of time they would be leaning towards suspicious [death] rather than unexplained."
• Police are appealing for anyone who has information and has not yet come forward to contact the investigation team at Op.Kian@police.govt.nz.
