The families told him Herald The bodies of their relatives were found bound with plastic tape and placed in plastic bags instead of the coffins they should have been in when flood damage to the public mausoleum at Waikumete Cemetery forced them to be exhumed in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Baldwin said police arrested a 48-year-old woman in Favona, South Auckland, on October 22. Bakulich appeared in the Auckland District Court on October 25 on charges of misconduct in relation to human remains and nine of obtaining by deception.

Baldwin said police could not rule out further charges being laid and encouraged anyone “with ongoing concerns” to contact them online or by calling 105 and quoting case number 240808/8008.

Police began investigating allegations of fraud against Bakulich after Tipene Funerals filed complaints in March and April this year. It remains unclear what complaints Tipene Funerals made against Bakulich, but police closed that investigation because there was insufficient evidence.

Police then began investigating new concerns about the bodies at Waikumete Cemetery in August this year, following an exclusive investigation by Herald in which several families spoke anonymously about what they faced when they were present at the burials.

Bereaved families, many of them prominent Samoans from Auckland, were confronted with the sight of their dead relatives who had allegedly been mishandled.

They told him Herald they had requested Bakulich’s services specifically because she was Samoan and expected to be treated with the utmost cultural competence.

“When the families opened the (outside) caskets, it was just another level of grief. There was just wailing and screaming,” said an affected relative Herald.

“How could you do this to our loved ones? You bagged them like trash.”

Other families told him Herald they believed they had been swindled out of money by the undertaker.

Tipene Funerals director Francis Tipene said the company encouraged anyone with concerns about Bakulich’s behavior to report them to police.

“Tipene Funerals has given the police all the information we know.”

He said his “former employee” worked for Tipene Funerals as a funeral director for seven years.

“And in doing so, a great deal of trust was placed in her, both by Tipene Funerals and myself as director, and the families she cared for,” Tipene said.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter covering breaking news. He joined Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.

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