Body exhumed, but nothing suspicious found

Press, 26 August 1982, Page 2

Body exhumed, but nothing suspicious found

The Christchurch police are satisfied that there was nothing suspicious about the death of a Riccarton man whose body was exhumed yesterday. The man. Mr Mir Stepanov, aged 60. a welder, had collapsed less than half an hour after being involved in a "scuffle" at his home on Saturday morning, and had died in' the early hours of Sunday morning, said Detective Inspector N. J. Stokes.

The death and the circumstances surrounding it were not reported to the police before the burial at a Belfast cemetery at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. No post-mortem examination was made.

Later, the police spoke to

persons involved in the incident before Mr Stepanov collapsed. and the Director-Gen-eral of Health was asked to authorise an exhumation. "This was because we were not initially informed and no post-mortem examination had been carried out. After the information we received, a post-mortem had to be made to establish the cause of death," said Mr Stokes. The body was exhumed at 7.30 a.m. yesterday. The post-mortem examination revealed no suspicious circumstances. The cause of death and other, facts would emerge at the - Coroner's Court hearing., Mr Stokes said.