'Dickie has to die', wife's diary says 

An inquest into the death of an elderly man heard excerpts from his wife's diary in which she said: "Dickie has to die."

The coroner said the inquest raised several questions: Did Levin man Dirk Burghout die by his own hand or die at the hand of another? Did he die at his own request to end his suffering - a so-called mercy killing?

Mr Burghout, 77, was due to go into a rest home when he was found dead at his home on February 2 last year, Levin coroner Phil Comber was told yesterday.

Police said he was found with a yellow plastic shopping bag over his head, his upper body covered by a duvet, with a damp blue towel on his chest.

The bodies of his wife Janna, 75, and daughter, Christina, aged 51, who were accused of murdering him, were found in Houghton Bay on the south coast of Wellington four months later.

Their deaths were not considered to be suspicious and murder charges were later withdrawn. Name suppression of the three victims was lifted.

Excerpts from Janna Burghout's diary were read to the court.

In one of them, she lamented her financial position and wrote: "Dickie has to die - that's the length and breadth of it if I am to hang onto my savings; what a predicament, the law is an ass".

Two Levin police officers, Sergeant Michael Harding and Constable Elizabeth Woodley, told the court that Christina Burghout, who lived upstairs from her parents, admitted that she had killed her father.

Mr Harding said that when he saw the body he lifted the duvet and saw the plastic bag was not sucked into the mouth and nose and the mouth and chin were not covered by the plastic.
Christina told Mr Harding "I killed my father, I helped him."

She said that she put the bag over his head. "He was so tough he just wanted to die".

She later recanted, denying she had killed her father.

Pathologist Dr Cynric Temple-Camp said Mr Burghout's death was caused by asphyxia but there was no evidence of manual strangulation.

The dead man's son Pieter Burghout, aged 42, told the inquest that he remembered from family discussions that his mother Janna had supported euthanasia.

She was "an emotional bully, who would berate until she got her way", he said.

The court heard Mrs Burghout faced a severe financial crisis with the sale of the family home in Levin and the purchase of a town house in Miramar, Wellington.

The two women had planned to move there after Mr Burghout had moved into the rest home.

But Christina , who had been bankrupted three times, was refused a mortgage for the property.

The new house was in the name of a recently formed family trust, which put Mrs Burghout in the position of having to pay for Mr Burghout's care in the rest home.

Under questioning from police prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk, psychiatric nurse Margaret Shepherd said she doubted Mr Burghout would have understood the concept of wanting to die.

Mrs Shepherd had assessed the progression of his dementia on several occasions.

Peter also said he could never see his father as a man to commit suicide.

Contrary to what his mother and sister said, he believed his father was happy to move to the rest home.

Mr Comber asked Pieter if he thought his sister would have been capable of mercy killing.

He replied: "With the right mix of alcohol and emotional angst - yes."

Pieter said Christina had a "love-hate relationship" with their father

The inquest continues today.

- NZPA