The fingers were removed in 1933 to check prints. Photo / File
The fingers were removed in 1933 to check prints. Photo / File
A woman has been reunited with her fingers after they were removed by police 80 years ago to help eliminate her own fingerprints from an investigation into her death.
Police held a small ceremony on Friday at the Oamaru Old Cemetery block where Jessie Fendall's fingers were buried in a small wooden box at her last resting place.
Those at the ceremony included the dead woman's great-nephew Brian Collinge and staff from the Otago Coastal policing area.
Police and family attended a ceremony at the Oamaru Old Cemetery. Photo / Supplied
Fendall's fingers have been under the guardianship of the New Zealand Police Museum in recent years, having originally been used as part of the New Zealand Police Forensics Collection.
Fendall, an assistant chief teacher at Otekaieke Special School, was found unconscious at the bottom of an 11-foot bank of a dry creek bed near the school in September 1933.
She died days later, never regaining consciousness.
Relatives of Jessie living in Auckland did not believe her injuries were caused solely by the fall and her body was exhumed on December 12, 1933, even though police gave no indication to support the belief that her death was caused by anything but an accident.
To eliminate her fingerprints, Fendall's fingers were removed from her body and sent to the Wellington Fingerprint Branch for analysis.
It was established the bloody fingerprints on the dead woman's magazine were her own.
In July this year the Police Museum began the repatriation of the remains of 37 individuals they had in their care for a number of years.
The repatriation of Fendall's fingers marked the 33rd set of remains the museum had completed.
Jessie Fendall's grave at the Oamaru Old Cemetery. Photo / Supplied
It was the first time in the museum's repatriation project where staff had worked with the direct relatives of one of the individuals.
"The previous 32 repatriations we have completed have been for individuals who have been unidentifiable or have had no living relatives who could be identified," said museum director Rowan Carroll.
"However, with Jessie, we were able to identify some of her living relatives, but it was difficult."
"Only one of Jessie's siblings had had children and, with respecting privacy requirements, we followed a family tree until we could locate one of her living relatives."
Collinge said the family were more intrigued and pleased that police were able to use the fingers.
"The family were happy that Jessie's fingers were used for a good purpose, and we have been impressed with the way police have handled the process of reuniting Jessie all these years later."
"Jessie wasn't forgotten within the family, however as time went on, less of the family knew her story.
This process has allowed us to bring back some of our family history that some of us were not aware of."
After her fingerprints were identified, and due to her body having been reburied during this process, her fingers were placed in the New Zealand Police Forensics Collection so officers could be shown the process to be taken when they dealt with post-mortem remains.
The Forensics Collection was last used in the 1990's and the remains were placed under the care of the New Zealand Police Museum, where they have remained until this year.
