A tiny grave, a shared goodbye: Farewell for baby found on roadside

A stillborn baby found on a Marlborough roadside has been laid to rest, with police, iwi leaders and members of the community gathering to farewell the infant they said “belongs to all of us”.

The baby’s body was found by a mowing contractor on Wairau Bar Rd, near Spring Creek, on June 19, prompting a police investigation and a public appeal to identity the mother.

At Fairhall Cemetery near Blenheim this morning, about 40 people gathered to ensure the baby was not laid to rest alone.

Two police detectives lowered the tiny white casket into the ground, and a kuia wailed.

The solo lament for a baby with no name could barely be heard over the busy birdlife and rustling trees.

But its message left no doubt.

“This is our baby,” Ngāti Rarua kaumātua Barney Thomas told the community leaders, police officers and members of the community who came to bury the stillborn baby.

“It belongs to all of us.”

The infant was found by a mowing contractor on Wairau Bar Rd in Blenheim on May 19. Photo / Cherie Howie

Police chaplain John Etheredge noted the “traumatic and tragic” circumstances behind the little life those gathered had come to acknowledge.

“We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and science is still trying to figure out the intricacies of about being.

“You might say Baby Doe didn’t even have a day of life. My responses, yes, baby was formed and alive in the womb.”

An unidentified stillborn baby found on a roadside by a mowing contractor in May was buried at Fairhall Cemetery near Blenheim today. Pictured is police chaplain John Etheredge. Photo / Cherie Howie

The mother of the baby, whose sex has not been disclosed, remains unknown, with police repeatedly expressing concern for her wellbeing.

The best way to face the trauma of what happened was “through community”, Etheredge said.

Several organisations donated services or funds towards today’s graveside farewell, including Sowman’s Funerals, police, Marlborough District Council, Artisan Memorials and Mayflower Florist.

Shortly after the infant was found, local iwi Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rarua placed a rāhui on the area “acknowledging the people involved in the event, who were indirectly impacted, and so we’re here to support them as well”. Photo / Cherie Howie

An infant casket, with the image of a rabbit at one end, was donated by Christchurch Hospital, and the Children’s Commissioner sent a bouquet.

It was important “no life goes unnoticed or unmourned at its end”, Marlborough Mayor Nadine Taylor said to those gathered.

She was thinking of the baby’s mother, Taylor said.

“Somewhere there is a mother whose lost a baby and is grieving … as I look around I see many mothers and fathers that would share that grief.”

Taylor also acknowledged Detectives Hannah McCabey and Paul Beckett, who “stood by this pēpi right through this with care and aroha in your heart”.

Police continue to seek information from the public about the baby's death. Photo / Cherie Howie

The detectives, who had accompanied Baby Doe from where its body was found on Wairau Bar Rd to a hospital autopsy room, stood together at the service as Beckett read the poem Angel of my Tears.

“How do you mourn the death of one who never got to live?

“Little baby, just as if you’d lived for years. No more, no less I think of you, the angel of my tears.”

The pair then lowered the casket into its final resting place, a tiny plot at the end of a row in the children’s section.

An unidentified stillborn baby found on a roadside by a mowing contractor in May was buried at Fairhall Cemetery near Blenheim today. Pictured left to right are Detectives Hannah McCabey and Paul Beckett, and police chaplain John Etheredge. 29 July 2026. Photo / Cherie Howie

Mourners filed past the grave, some pausing to kiss sprigs of rosemary before dropping them on to the casket.

Blenheim celebrant Coralie Holdaway, wearing a bright pink coat to bring colour to the infant’s farewell, was there to recognise “this beautiful baby”.

“This baby is very special”, she said, echoing the epitaph now fixed above Baby Doe’s grave.

“Every life that ever forms touches the world in some small way, for all eternity.”