David Hart's death remains unsolved. His remains were found encased in concrete underneath his Mt Eden home. Photo / Alex Burton
The truth of what really happened to a man found entombed in concrete beneath his home for 16 years with a skull fracture may never be known as the only person who may have known has since died.
A coroner has determined David Stanley Hart disappeared in 2004 but has been unable to confirm how he died or who buried him in the basement of his Marlborough St home in Mt Eden, Auckland.
The person who was most likely to know those answers was Hart’s boarder Gabriel Ormsby who continued living in the house until his own death in 2016.
Hart was never reported missing and neighbours believed he had gone to Australia or a rest home while Ormsby managed the boarding home.
It was not until the house was sold in a mortgagee sale and the new owner began renovations that Hart’s skeletal remains were discovered in January 2020.
His remains were found in a hollow concrete mound under the house.
After Hart’s body was found, his history as the past owner of the villa, which he ran as a ramshackle boarding house until early 2004, emerged.
Police discovered the boarding house had attracted ex-criminals and elderly alcoholics.
In trying to determine what happened to Hart, police looked for details of his movements after March that year while a forensic anthropologist looked for clues as to how he died.
The expert identified a linear fracture on the back of Hart’s skull but was unable to determine whether it occurred before or after death. They also found a rib fracture on the left side of his body.
Police reported to the coroner last year after obtaining Hart’s medical, banking and passport records, interviewing neighbours and boarders and conducting other inquiries.
In his findings released today, Coroner Alexander Ho said he was unable to ascertain the cause of death, but a head injury could not be excluded.
It was noted the force required to cause the fracture would have been substantial.
Police were unable to definitively link Ormsby to Hart’s death because of a lack of evidence.
What police could determine was that Hart died some time in 2004 and that Ormsby’s actions around the time of the death indicated he at least knew about it.
The lead investigator told the coroner evidence suggested Hart’s body was disposed of by a person who had ongoing access to the scene.
Evidence demonstrated that around the time of his death, Hart had a physical conflict with Ormsby but the cause of the conflict was unknown, according to the findings.
Ormsby told numerous lies about why Hart was absent at the time of his disappearance, and years later continued trying to sell another property Hart owned in Blackball on the West Coast, the investigator in charge told the coroner.
“This indicates he knew Hart was not alive to contest his actions.”
However, the investigator said disposal of the body didn’t prove criminal culpability and there would have been insufficient evidence to support a charge against Ormsby in relation to the death.
Hart was born in March 1941, one of five children placed in an orphanage after his parents separated until they were taken back by their mother.
He bought the Marlborough St property in 1982 and paid it off in 1992, but the mortgage was never discharged by lender ASB and the bank remained the mortgagee on the title.
Hart lived on the property from about the early 1990s, operating it as an unlicensed boarding house. Tenants paid him cash rent each week.
Hart would often travel to his Blackball property to prospect for gold.
His neighbours at Marlborough St presented differing views about him and the boarding house operation, according to the findings.
Most said he was generally unlikeable and argumentative and tried to avoid him.
They recalled him holding odd opinions about certain topics, including politics and aliens.
They said that he had frequent arguments with his boarders and that he would often evict them for various reasons.
However, Hart had a couple of long-term boarders, one of whom described him as civil, courteous and articulate despite his eccentric views.
Sometime in the early 2000s, Ormsby started boarding at Marlborough St.
He had previous criminal convictions for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, burglary and aggravated wounding, but didn’t come to police attention while he was living at Hart’s house.
Neighbours and other boarders described Ormsby as likeable and easygoing.
But a boarder came upon a situation in 2004 that indicated that Hart and Ormsby had been involved in a physical altercation.
Hart reportedly suffered an injury that caused visible blood loss to his head and there was evidence of another argument between the pair but no confirmed date.
In April 2004, at Ormsby’s instigation, the name on the power account was changed from Hart’s name to his.
Boarders at that time who gave accounts said Ormsby told them he had taken over management of the house and they were to pay cash rent to him, which he would then forward to the owner, the findings said.
The boarders complied, and no issue was ever raised with them about the arrangement or their security of tenancy.
Investigators found no evidence of what became of Hart after Ormsby took over.
No boarders recalled seeing or dealing with Hart after that time.
One boarder recalled a vague suggestion that Hart had planned to travel to Ballarat in Australia but immigration records showed he last used his passport to enter New Zealand in October 2003 after a brief trip to Australia.
Other records didn’t shed further light on his movements.
Hart last attended a medical appointment in November 2003 and failed to attend his next scheduled appointment in June 2004.
The last transaction in his banking accounts was recorded in March 2004.
In 2005, a neighbouring Blackball resident wondered if Hart would be interested in selling his vacant West Coast property and found an Auckland phone number that she understood to be his.
She rang and spoke with a person she believed to be Hart.
Several phone calls followed with the same person who identified themselves as Hart, who she reported saying was open to selling, but needed to talk to a business partner first.
She corresponded with the person by mail and provided police with two typed letters with headers of “David S Hart” followed by the Marlborough St address.
“Since you offered to pay by cash, I have decided to reduce the price to seven thousand dollars,” the letter writer said.
“Firstly, don’t be concerned with any immediate payment. I will get the property ownership changed over to you first.”
Other house sales in the area at the time ranged between $15,800 and $75,000.
Grey District Council received a letter from “Hart” around the same time telling them the woman had taken ownership of the Blackball property.
However, more correspondence from “Hart” to the woman and council showed there were delays in finalising the sale.
The names of “Abe” and “Jackson Rowles” were mentioned in the correspondence to the woman as acting for “Hart”, but police didn’t identify them in subsequent inquiries.
A Courier Post parcel addressed to her showed handwritten sender details from “D S Hart” of 3 Marlborough Street, Auckland, which a handwriting expert said matched Ormsby’s.
The coroner said Ormsby’s handwriting suggested Ormsby was assisting Hart in the matter, whether with full knowledge of the contents of the correspondence or otherwise, or that he was masquerading as Hart in relation to the Blackball property, and that Ormsby knew that Hart was in a position, for whatever reason, to not object to his charade.
The coroner said the correspondence strongly suggested some sort of significant event occurred around March or April 2004 and the most likely interpretation of the evidence was that Hart died during that time.
Rates payments in 2002 and 2003 on Marlborough St had been by annual lump sum payment by cheque drawn on Hart’s bank account in September 2002 and by direct deposit in August 2003.
But, records showed the payments were made quarterly between September 2004 and August 2010, initially by internet payment and then later a mix of internet and cash payments.
The property went into rates arrears in July 2011 and Auckland Council didn’t appear to have taken immediate action, according to the findings.
Ormsby died of natural causes in September 2016. According to a death notice he died suddenly at the Marlborough St house.
By 2017 the property had fallen into disrepair with neighbours complaining it was overgrown and was attracting vermin.
They contacted the council who notified ASB as the undischarged mortgagee, together with a demand for the unpaid rates.
ASB paid the rates arrears and hired a private investigator to find Hart, without success.
The bank applied to the High Court to sell the property and the new owner took possession in January 2019 and started renovations that year.
Hart’s skeleton was found inside a hollow concrete mound, which was itself protruding from a pile of dirt, in the house’s basement during renovation work later that year.
The coroner accepted the evidence supported a conclusion that Ormsby knew of Hart’s death, but no conclusion beyond that.
“In particular, the absence of any evidence about how Mr Hart died means that it is not possible to determine whether [he] was unlawfully killed.”
Records show the property was last sold in 2023 for $3.15 million.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the past 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.