Snatched body returned to family

Dick Peacock, brother of Ivy May Ngahooro (inset), consoles her daughter Joy Clarke. Photo / Greg Bowker

The body of 76-year-old Ivy May Ngahooro has been returned to her family by her estranged daughter and will now be buried in Hamilton.

Waikato police communications spokesman Andrew McAlley told NZPA family members had negotiated today and signed an agreement to return her body.

The 76-year-old's body left the Marae in the back of a black Chrysler Valiant station wagon with the number plate 6six6.

A relative of Mrs Ngahooro was driving the stationwagon and there were children in the backseat.

As the stationwagon pulled out of the Marae - led by a policecar - people shouted abuse at media and made Mongrel Mob gestures before following in other cars.

The family Ivy May Ngahooro had been served with an injunction this morning ordering them to take Ivy May Ngahooro's body back to Hamilton.

Her family have been at odds over where to bury her since Wednesday when estranged daughter Joanne Bennett and four carloads of supporters from Mrs Ngahooro's body from a hearse in Hamilton and took it to Taumarunui.

The executor of her will Trish Scoble last night got a court injunction in Hamilton which was hand delivered to the Marae near Taumarunui where Mrs Bennett was keeping her mother's body.

Mrs Scoble's sister Catherine Mikkelsen was among a group of Mrs Ngahooro's family who were escorted onto Hikairo Marae this morning by four police cars.

The group, who arrived in a white van and waited near the Marae before proceeding, were armed with the High Court injunction ordering the removal of Ms Ngahooro's body from the Marae.

A white hearse arrived shortly after the group but after some deliberations with a police officer left the scene and headed back to Taumarunui.

Ms Mikkelsen, who is an early childhood educator, said the injunction prevented earlier plans that would have seen Ms Ngahooro buried in a Taumarunui cemetery today.

The injunction stated that Mrs Ngahooro's body must be returned to the Seddon Park funeral home in Hamilton from where she was taken just an hour before she was meant to be buried.