The extraordinary death of Victoria Howell

Victoria Howell, by all accounts, was a kind woman who had run a nursing home before her death.
In many ways, it made the extraordinary circumstances of her death, burial, then exhumation and reburial even odder.
Victoria had been born in Riverton on Valentine's Day in 1871. Her father was Captain John Howell of the Fairlight station at Lake Wakatipu and her mother Caroline Brown.
Her closest friend was Florence Hall, a nurse. In the papers of the time Florence was referred to as friend and business partner - but given that they lived together and worked together for many years, a case could be made for a different relationship.
When they moved to the Wairarapa they bought a home and turned it into a nursing home. And for a time everything was fine.
Then in 1906, Victoria took ill. Initially it was thought to be influenza and a nasty case at that. But a consultation with a doctor led to a diagnosis of a cancerous growth in her stomach.
He advised them to go somewhere quiet - and the pair moved to a home at Castlepoint.
Florence nursed her diligently but Victoria died on January 23, 1906.
She was buried in the Archer St cemetery.
Normally that would end the story - but it was only the beginning.
Victoria’s brother questioned why her will would name Florence as her beneficiary and not any members of the family. He was suspicious and made a case for Victoria’s body to be exhumed.
It was done and she was examined. But no growths were found. So what did Victoria die of?
Samples were taken and sent for analysis and suspicion began to fall on Florence. And by the inquest it was clear Victoria had died of zinc poisoning and all eyes turned to Florence again.
Poor Victoria’s body was again exhumed for further tests.
A series of investigations came to astonishing conclusions though. Victoria had been drinking water from a zinc tank, new tanks put in at the home in Castlepoint.
At the inquest it turned out a few other people who used the water at Castlepoint had also been ill, just not to the degree Victoria was.
A government analyst told the inquest the water Victoria was drinking contained four times the amount of zinc as other water.
With all the information to hand a jury at the inquest found that Victoria had died from zinc poisoning - made worse by the fact she was already ill.
The jury also found no other person was responsible for her death.
Victoria was again quietly buried, finally to rest.
Florence sued several newspapers who had all but convicted her before the findings of the inquest and moved on going to Wellington to work.
Victoria had been buried in what is called the old ground at the Masterton cemetery and the whereabouts of her grave is now not known.​