A grieving woman who bathed and cared for her husband's badly decomposing body for weeks after he died wouldn't acknowledge the remains were her spouse.
That forced police to use dental records to identify the man, whose body was found in his northern Wellington home in late August.
Police opened a homicide investigation but have not laid any charges and have now passed the matter to the coroner.
It appeared the man died of natural causes, but his wife did not notify authorities or funeral directors of his passing and instead tended to his body in the couple's Housing NZ property on Manaaki Way, a small, quiet cul-de-sac in Titahi Bay.
The remains were so badly decomposed that identifying them was tough, Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Ferguson said today.
He said he'd leave it up to the coroner to decide if the pair's names should be made public. Police had previously said the couple were aged in their late 50s and were originally from India.
Mr Ferguson described the case as "bizarre".
"One of the challenges was the denial by the spouse that it was her husband and police had to do a lengthy identification phase," he said.
"At this stage we are not looking at it as a homicide. We've got a lot of our fingerprint and DNA results back and we are pretty comfortable with the identification - that it was the woman's husband. The matter's now in the hands of the coroner."
Mr Ferguson said the man had been having health troubles and the coroner would rule on the exact cause of death. His wife, meanwhile, had "mental health issues" and would not admit he was gone.
"That was the twist or sticking point in the investigation. She was saying, 'that's not my husband, this is a stranger that arrived the day my husband disappeared'.
"She was feeding and bathing this decomposing body."
Mr Ferguson said this probably went on for six weeks or more.
"The body wasn't in good shape. We even got some close friends to come to the mortuary to try to do an identification, but they couldn't even do that."
Officers had to use dental records, but in New Zealand that's a challenge in itself as there is no national database.
Instead, investigators had to call around to find where these were held.
The man's wife hadn't been diagnosed with any specific illness but had, perhaps in grief, convinced herself her husband wasn't dead. It was also possible her actions were a form of Hindu cultural ritual, Mr Ferguson said.
The body was found after neighbours complained of the smell.
Today the modest brick flat was unoccupied and open curtains revealed some items still inside.
Hanging on the door, a sign said: "For your safety, do not enter, ozone machine in use."
Such machines are used to get rid of smells.
A woman who lived nearby said she was still traumatised by what happened. She said the pair were good friends of hers and she briefly saw the woman yesterday.
Since the man's body was found, she'd looked after the pair's cat.
"That cat was like his child. He didn't have any kids himself."
In August, another neighbour, who did not want to be named, told NZME he noticed a stench. He said he told his friends: "I think there is a dead body in there."
No words could describe the smell coming from the man's house, the neighbour said. He didn't know the dead man well, but said he was "harmless" and had lived in the area for only a year or so.
[NZME-NZG-NZC]
