KEY POINTS:
The body of Tina Marshall-McMenamin, allegedly taken from a Lower Hutt funeral home by her father, has "definitely been buried" in the Ruatoria area, said Sergeant Hone Herewini.
The Herald understands that a small tangi was held for Ms Marshall-McMenamin yesterday.
The service at Tinatoka Marae at Whakawhitira included whanau from the Wellington area.
The burial comes after her fiance and maternal family yesterday got a High Court order preventing a burial and an exhumation order.
Carterton mayor Gary McPhee said this afternoon he would step in and negotiate between family members fighting over the body of Ms Marshall-McMenamin, a 25-year-old mother, who died of a drug overdose on Monday.
Despite arrangements for her Wellington burial being agreed too, her body was taken by her father and driven to the East Coast on Tuesday.
Her family in Lower Hutt has sought a High Court ruling to stop the body of the 25-year-old mother being buried.
But Sergeant Herewini said the police are yet to receive a court order.
He said he understands the family is meeting with lawyers in Wellington this morning.
"We're working through it but it is not a police matter at this stage. We need to be led by the courts," Mr Herewini said.
He said he feels for both families at this highly emotional stage.
"It's very delicate, especially with the emotions of the families tied up.
"There's a culture clash and I don't know how you deal with it. I feel for all parties involved," Mr Herewini said.
In Wellington Ms Marshall-McMenamin's fiance and partner of seven years, Darryl Cox said he was reeling from the double blow of losing Ms Marshall-McMenamin and not having a body to farewell.
"It's hard enough...I just want our baby home," he told the Dominion Post.
The couple had two children, Kyarn, three, and Xavier, one. He had not told them their mother was dead, Mr Cox said.
"I'm just waiting for Kyarn to say, 'Where's mummy, what's wrong, daddy?'
"Tina was a loving mother, her kids came first."
Ms Marshall-McMenamin's stepfather Peter Henderson said her father had eventually agreed the funeral arrangements should go ahead tomorrow as planned, provided he could drive his daughter from the funeral home to her mother's house in Naenae.
"Her partner went and kissed her goodbye and then her dad just ran off with her. The people he was with stopped us from following him. They blocked us off with their cars."
The prospect of Ms Marshall-McMenamin being buried in a town she may have visited once was traumatising for the family, Mr Henderson said.
"Tina was not brought up as a Maori, she does not know that side of the family. Her father was only in and out of her life when it was convenient for him."
Earlier this year controversy erupted when members of the Taneatua whanau of James Takamore took him from Te Whare Roimata Community Centre in Christchurch, without the permission of his partner of more than 20 years Denise Clarke, and "brought him home" to be buried at Kutarere in Bay of Plenty.
Mr Takamore had been due to be buried the next day in Christchurch, in accordance with Ms Clarke's wishes.
Ms Clarke has since obtained an exhumation order for Mr Takamore's body, although it has not yet been acted upon.
- NZPA
