Legendary broadcaster Polly Gillespie says the shocking discovery a few doors down has sparked gossip in the Ōwhiro Bay community.
Legendary broadcaster Polly Gillespie says the shocking discovery a few doors down has sparked gossip in the Ōwhiro Bay community.
Broadcaster Polly Gillespie has spoken of her shock after human remains were found in a garden down the road from her Wellington home.
Police confirmed on Tuesday they were investigating after a homeowner on Happy Valley Rd in Ōwhiro Bay found the remains in their garden on Sunday.
Detective SeniorSergeant Lee Underhill said a police team was sent to the address on Monday, where neighbours saw forensics teams digging in the garden.
“After consulting a forensic anthropologist and pathologist, the partial remains were determined to be human.
Police were seen digging in the garden of a property on Happy Valley Rd in Wellington's Ōwhiro Bay on Monday. File photo / Dean Purcell
“Inquiries will look to determine how old these remains are, followed by a formal identification process, which may take some time,” Underhill said.
Gillespie, who lives a few doors down from the property where the remains were discovered, said she only found out about it through a friend when picking up her granddaughter from school.
Legendary broadcaster Polly Gillespie says the shocking discovery a few doors down has sparked gossip in the Ōwhiro Bay community.
“A friend came up to me at school and said, ‘What about the body in your neighbour’s garden?’, and I said, ‘Excuse me?’,” Gillespie told the Herald.
“She said, ‘Oh, yeah, apparently they found human remains down the road from you’, and I went, ‘Oh my goodness’.”
Gillespie, who is now a counsellor and therapist, took to social media to share the extraordinary interaction.
“People are just a bit sort of like gobsmacked by it,” the former radio host said.
The property used to be a thoroughfare to the community garden behind the section.
It was previously owned by the late community leader Robert ‘Bruce’ Te Whare, with neighbours saying it operated as a grassroots emergency housing facility.
Gillespie said she had often walked through the property herself, which she said included a number of smaller dwellings and a whare kai.
“So a lot of us used to wander down the road and take our children and our moko down to feed the ducks and have a look around and stuff and then they closed it off and obviously somebody else has bought the property and while sort of doing it up has found what they found.
“My daughter said to me, ‘Goodness, do you think we walked over the person?’”
Gillespie said there had been “a bit of gossip” in the community following the discovery.
“And so people were wondering ‘what on earth?’ when the police were there, apparently people were wondering what was being dug up, was it treasure? Was it money? Was it drugs? I don’t think anybody really suspected a human being,” she said.
The former Polly & Grant show star has lived in the street for nearly two years: “It’s quite sleepy and sort of almost rural.”
Former radio host Polly Gillespie with ex-husband Grant Kereama.
Police don’t yet know how old the remains are and will not say what specifically was found, other than to say it was “partial remains”.
“I just hope they find out how recent it was. I’d really prefer it was like 150 years ago, that would make me feel slightly less sort of weird about it, but I guess we’ll find out eventually,” she said.
Police said part of their investigations will include contacting former owners of the property.
“We continue to speak with former owners and those who resided in the property to form part of our investigation.”
Underhill encouraged anyone with information to contact police via 105, using reference file number 250622/3189.
Ethan Manera is a New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist with Newstalk ZB and is interested in local issues, politics, and property in the capital. Ethan can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.
