By PATRICK GOWER
The sexton who stole 135 rings from corpses at a crematorium has been jailed for 2 1/4 years for his "crime against public morality".
Franz Alfred Zumbuhl was sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court yesterday after admitting more than 150 charges relating to the thefts and interfering with bodies over five years.
The Swiss-born 62-year-old, known as Frank and regarded as a model citizen in the community, sold the rings in three lots to second-hand gold dealers for a total of $2500.
Judge Geoffrey Rea told Zumbuhl that he "repeatedly plundered the treasured possessions of the dead [and then] ultimately succumbed to greed".
"Nothing less than a prison sentence can reflect this community's and the entire country's horror at your offending."
Zumbuhl, who was wearing a large gold ring on his right ring-finger, stood unmoved.
His lawyer, Paul Keegan, said it difficult to provide a rational explanation for an unprecedented offence categorised as a crime against public morality.
Zumbuhl started work at the Taranaki Crematorium, in New Plymouth, in 1994. His job was to put coffins into the incinerator.
He started removing screws from the coffins and eventually decided to remove the lids and pull off the rings from the bodies.
It all ended this year when he sold a batch of 81 rings to a visiting dealer for $1200 and was recognised by a shop assistant, who told the police.
The investigation was harrowing. Judge Rea said experienced detectives, who had worked on many homicides, had to file victim impact statements because of the level of grief with affected families.
After taking possession of the rings, police were flooded with calls from up to 100 sets of grieving relatives.
But the similarity of the mainly gold bands meant that just eight families were able to make positive identifications.
One woman, who does not want to be named, said the police contacted her family because her deceased elderly father's distinctive full initials were engraved on the inside of a ring.
She described Zumbuhl's actions as utterly sickening.
"We made a conscious decision as a family to put the ring back on dad's finger prior to cremation. It was removed prior to post-mortem but we got it back and when the coffin was open at the funeral parlour I checked to make sure it was still there."
She sympathised with the families who chose not to check for lost rings.
"What do you do with a ring that you know was supposed to be cremated with your father? Hold on to it as a keepsake? If you don't hold on to it then what do you do if his ashes have already been interred and it can't be buried with him?"
Some families were so distressed that when the police asked them to make an identification, they could not go into the interview room where the rings were displayed.
The offending has left Zumbuhl's family, friends and workmates in shock.
It has destroyed Annelise, his wife of 38 years and mother of their three children. She is often too upset to eat and has lost weight, from a slight 47kg to just 38kg, since court proceedings began in August.
To friends, the couple were known as lovebirds, rarely spending a night apart since moving to New Zealand in the 60s and seen walking to church hand in hand.
Zumbuhl was described as a model citizen, an intelligent and stoic individual. He grew orchids, played tennis, was a skier and was fond of a game of snooker over a beer.
Mr Keegan conceded in his submissions that Zumbuhl was now likely to forever be known as that guy who stole the rings from the bodies, or "that creep".
In looking for some sort of explanation, Mr Keegan turned to Zumbuhl's childhood in post-war Switzerland, where shortages meant that there was a need to use everything - to be frugal and not be wasteful.
For Zumbuhl, it was something of an anathema to see precious metal destroyed.
Mr Keegan said that as a young man, Zumbuhl worked in Switzerland as a ski instructor and would sometimes remove corpses from isolated areas, often spending days with them, which meant that he did not share the same inhibitions as others about bodies.
But Zumbuhl bizarrely told police when arrested that he was concerned about smoke emission problems and had decided to vet what was being burned at the crematorium.
Zumbuhl, who is eligible for home detention, refused to be interviewed, instead providing a statement to the Herald in which he described himself as despicable.
"I do not wish to give an interview. In part, this is to spare the families of the deceased and indeed my own family the sight of me talking about the appalling things I have done."
Public services will be held throughout Taranaki next weekend to cremate the unclaimed rings, as they should have been in the first place.
Prison for robbing the dead
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