'Big heart' led man to death

By Bernard Orsman

Ken Karu was no saint but he had a big heart. The drainage worker always put other people first and it was this unselfishness that his family believe probably led to his death.

Linda Grieve, Mr Karu's girlfriend for the past two years, said yesterday that he might have gone to help his two workmates, Eddie Rihia and Darren Skeen, when he could not see them in a downtown Auckland sewer on Saturday.

All three men died around noon from an apparent lack of oxygen down a manhole shaft leading to the sewer.

"Ken lived for his work. He was a really hard toiler, very close to his workmates and they all loved him," Linda Grieve said.

"Everyone else came first and he put himself last. His heart was the biggest part of him."

Mr Karu's eldest daughter, Deidre, said her father was no saint - "he loved his alcohol and he loved his cigarettes" - but he was a "happy chappy." Another daughter, Baba, simply described her father as "awesome."

Mr Karu, Mr Rihia and Mr Skeen were regulars at the Grey Lynn Returned Services Club and had a beer together there on Friday evening.

Yesterday morning, about 700 family, friends and workmates gathered at the club for a combined funeral for the three men. Separate funerals will be held today and tomorrow.

"They worked together. They drank together. They died together," one mourner, Dave Grease, told the large crowd, which poured out on to the street.

Peter Burfield, Mr Skeen's rugby league coach, recalled a young Marist man who was always in trouble on the field but whom he came to regard like a family member off the field.

Others, including tough-looking drainage workers, reminded of the dangers of the job, cried with the families of the dead men as their coffins were taken outside and driven away.

One of Mr Karu's brothers, Joseph, said it was a time to grieve, but once the funerals were over, "I want some answers as to how and why the three men were killed.

"Someone has to be accountable."

Pictured: Ken Karu.