Unable to accept what had happened, a grieving New Zealand widow has continued to care for her husband’s body several weeks after his death.

According to ABC Online, when police arrived at the Wellington home, Police initially thought they were investigating a homicide.  Neighbours reports of a strong smell and the corpse they discovered was so decomposed, dental records were required to confirm the identity of the deceased man.

“One of the challenges was the denial by the spouse that it was her husband and police had to do a lengthy identification phase,” explained Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Ferguson, reported the ABC.  “The man had been having unspecified health troubles and the woman had mental health issues.”

Detective Senior Sergeant Ferguson explained further. “That was the twist or sticking point in the investigation. She [the wife] was saying, ‘That’s not my husband, this is a stranger that arrived the day my husband disappeared’.

“She was feeding and bathing this decomposing body.”

The ABC also reported that Detective Senior Sergeant Ferguson said he believed the fifty year old woman had been caring for the body for about six weeks before being discovered three months ago.

“At this stage we are not looking at it as a homicide. We’ve got a lot of our fingerprint and DNA results back and we are pretty comfortable with the identification — that it was the woman’s husband.”