Helen Verry, also known as Helen Tuigamala, died at the age of 44. Photo / Va'aiga Tuigamala
Warning: this story contains details of fatal injuries that some might find disturbing.
The last time Tim Verry saw his wife at church she looked at him “smiling and full of joy” while talking to friends after a service.
He left soon after and headed home, but it wasn’t long until the Auckland man received a call saying a roller door had fallen on Pastor Helen Verry and he needed to get back to church.
She died soon after, holding his hand.
Today, Verry attended an inquest into his wife’s death asking why she died while working at Church Unlimited in 2022.
He also wanted to know why the church’s core values are “people are our passion” and “excellence is our standard” when he says it never serviced or maintained the door that killed his wife or identified it as a hazard.
“One of my prayers was that no stone be left unturned,” he said of the inquest before Coroner Janet Anderson, who will determine the cause of death and whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
Verry began by giving some of his wife’s background, saying she was the baby of the family and her mother’s favourite.
Her upbringing made her into a strong, independent and confident woman who loved her family, especially her mum, siblings and more than 50 nieces and nephews.
She was also the younger sister of All Black legend Va’aiga “Inga the winger” Tuigamala, who died a month after her.
Verry said his wife was “full of life” with a “huge heart” and energy that was “so infectious”.
They started dating in 2013, married two years later, bought their first house in 2020 and the following year she suffered a miscarriage.
“She was killed before she was able to conceive again.”
Verry said their plans and goals as a couple were “ripped away” when she died.
In her work as a youth pastor, his wife was committed, staying with them if they were unwell in the hospital and spending hours on the phone “listening” to them.
“Helen was often the only person in their lives who believed in them. ... Such was her heart for youth in the community.”
Since she died, two of their whānau had named babies after Helen and the livestream of her funeral had more than 75,000 views, “yet we know her reach was so much further”.
Verry described the Sunday on January 30, 2022, when his wife died.
Sunday was a workday for her and the space where she was killed was an area in the Glendene, West Auckland, church that was sometimes used as a bookshop, kids’ playroom or space for extra seating.
It could be partitioned off by a roller door, which her grieving husband said he had moved up or down using the switch many times before.
He attended the first service that morning and as he went to say goodbye to his wife, she was talking to a couple of friends.
“She looked at me smiling and full of joy.”
He left and went home. This was the last time he saw her alive.
The next thing he knew, he was getting calls telling him to come back to the church as the roller door had fallen on her.
He hopped in his car and started speeding back to church, praying that God would be with her.
When he arrived, emergency services were already there and people were holding up black curtains to conceal his wife’s body while paramedics worked on her.
Blood was coming out of her ears, back of her head and mouth.
He held his wife’s hand, telling her he was there and everything would be okay, that she would get through this.
She didn’t respond but the heart rate monitor showed a light pulse.
“Only a couple of minutes later it stopped, she was gone.”
He said he broke down, numb with grief, and then went home and barely slept that night.
“I kept wondering: why was she there when this happened? Why did she die?”
Verry remembered his brother-in-law telling him after his wife had died that, in the weeks before the fatal accident, the roller door hadn’t been working.
He questioned why Church Unlimited’s CEO Tak Bhana had not given a formal statement on his wife’s death when Bhana was actively “involved” in the church.
He had more questions.
“Why was the roller door never serviced or maintained since the day of install? ... [Or] identified ... as being its own hazard? What was the health and safety ... plan [at the] time of my wife’s death?”
He said he understood not much had changed at the church in terms of health and safety protocols four years on from his wife’s death and new measures were still being implemented.
He said the lack of change was against two of the church’s eight “core values”.
“Why did this take place? Because, if ‘people are our passion’ and ‘excellence is our standard’ ... if that’s at the core values of how they operate and work then why is health and safety still not taken seriously ... [and] still being implemented four and a half years later?”
One of his prayers was that “no stone was left unturned” during the inquest.
But seeing the pages of evidence involved, particularly the photos of Helen’s fatal injuries, had brought back the trauma of her death.
“As much as it’s four and a bit years down the track, it’s very much back to day one for me. Back to that day when she was lying there on the ground.”
The inquest continued in the afternoon with evidence from Church Unlimited musical director Adrian Robertson, who believed he was the last person to use the roller door before Helen Verry died.
The inquest is set down until the first week of June and will continue with six more witnesses.
Parties involved in the inquest include WorkSafe NZ, Church Unlimited and SDL, formally known as Scotty Doors.
Scotty Doors installed the roller door in 2009 and was ordered to pay more than $200,000 after Verry’s death.
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Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.