The son of a 75-year-old woman

The son of a 75-year-old woman killed in the February 22 earthquake has laid a complaint after a police identification bungle in which another family was wrongly told their mother had not survived.

Rodney Fletcher said he could forgive that, but not what happened two weeks later.
The funeral directors gave Rodney Fletcher a bag of what police told them were his mother Maureen Fletcher's personal effects.
He opened the bag to discover the contents belonged to Margaret Moon, a retired psychologist whose brief encounter with his mother before the quake set in motion the bizarre chain of events.

Maureen Fletcher was crushed when concrete crashed down at the Tasty Tucker cafe, Colombo St south, where she was sitting.

The Spreydon grandmother had struck up a conversation with former Diamond Harbour couple Bruce and Margaret Moon. The Moons were rushed to Christchurch Hospital after the quake hit.
However, Margaret Moon's cellphone and handbag were found with Maureen Fletcher's body.
In the confusion that followed, police used Margaret Moon's contact numbers to deliver the bad news to her shocked family in Nelson.

Daughter Caroline Tarling took the bombshell call on her cellphone.The teacher had just left a supermarket.
"I was in a state of disbelief. I sat in my car for a while. To say I was stunned doesn't describe it, " she said.

Numb, she drove to a lawyer, a family friend, who helped arrange victim support and other back up.
But six hours later she got even more of a shock when her mother called from hospital - and the mix up was realised.

The family are still reeling.
Margaret Moon said this week that it was perplexing to hear her family were told she was dead.

She was flown to Nelson Hospital two days after the quake with a broken arm and abrasions.
"I was absolutely shocked and dismayed that my family was put through that, " she said.Rodney Fletcher said his complaint, purely related to the property bungle, was not to hammer police in a difficult scenario.
But police needed to get their procedures right after the identity mix up was discovered, he said.