‘We can’t really move on’
Mum’s long wait for answers over daughter’s death amid Coroners Court delays
Lynda Illingsworth fears she will never find out why her daughter died.
Anna Illingsworth, who lived in Nelson, was 49 when she died suddenly in mid-2018. Her death was referred to the coroner and Lynda is struggling to understand why her wait for answers is taking so long.
Lynda, who lives in the United Kingdom, remembers Anna as an intelligent, self-deprecating woman who loved her family.
‘‘She was a high achiever, but she never took herself too seriously.’’
Anna moved to New Zealand as a young graduate in the late 1990s, and worked as a doctor while raising two children. Despite the distance, she remained close to her parents and they spoke on the phone each week, Lynda said.
When Lynda picked up the phone to Anna’s ex-husband in July 2018, she knew the worst had happened, she said.
‘‘It was awful. I knew as soon as I heard his voice it was not going to be good news.’’
When Anna had not shown up for a meeting with a friend, the friend had gone to her house and found she had died, Lynda learned.
Naturally, Lynda had questions – as far as she knew, Anna had been fit and well – but she understood the answers could take some time. But more than four years later,
Lynda is still waiting.
New Zealand has a well-documented coronial delay. Despite the appointment of eight new coroners in 2020, the average time to close a coronial case increased 42% between 2018 and 2021, from 321 days to 455 days.
In May, the Ministry of Justice announced a budget boost of $28.5 million to fund four extra coroners, and other staff to help relieve the workload.
Lynda checks in with the coroner every few months. Anna’s case seemed to have stalled, she said. In September 2021, she was told Anna’s case was 11th in the queue and she could expect something by the year’s end.
But when she checked again in February 2022, nothing had changed.
‘‘The reply actually shocked me: he said the situation was basically the same ... So not only had Anna’s case not been looked at, neither had the 10 in front of her.’’
The wait had taken a toll, Lynda said. ‘‘After the first few months after a death, you get through it. And then as the pain begins to ease a little bit you start wanting to know more answers.’’
Without answers, ‘‘ we can’t really move on’’, Lynda said.
‘‘Some of [Anna’s] elderly relatives will probably die before they find out what happened. My husband . . . has multiple sclerosis and I can see him deteriorating before my eyes. Is he going to die before he finds out what happened to his daughter?’’
Ministry of Justice governance and assurance general manager Daniel Reid said the ministry could not comment on active coronial cases, to ‘‘ensure the judicial process remains free from any outside interference’’.
He could not confirm when Anna Illingsworth’s case would be completed or where the case currently sat in the queue.
Coronial investigation times varied due to several factors, including the need for other agencies to investigate. There was no ‘‘prescribed order’’, or timeframe, for cases, which were up to the discretion of the coroner, Reid said.