Brought Home to Tasmania

The remains of Greg Lahey and Pip Lahey arrived at Hobart Airport on a Thursday afternoon, eleven days after the couple had flown out of the same terminal. They had travelled from Zurich by way of Singapore and Melbourne in the care of a repatriation service arranged through the Australian Embassy in Bern.

Richard Longey travelled with them. A detective with Tasmania Police and the husband of Greg's sister Linda, he had flown to Switzerland the day after the news reached New Norfolk, at the family's request, to deal with the authorities in the Valais on their behalf. Neither Patrick nor Thomas Lahey was in a condition to make the journey, and Richard was the member of the family best equipped to do what was required. He completed the formal identification, dealt with the coroner's office and the operator's insurers, collected the couple's belongings from their hotel in Zermatt, and signed the paperwork for their release. He did not discuss the identification with anyone in the family afterwards.

Among the belongings he brought back were Greg's camera, with a partly used roll of film still in it, and the travel journal Pip had been keeping since Melbourne. Both were handed to Jane Lahey, unopened, the following day.

Patrick Lahey and Thomas Lahey met the aircraft together at the freight terminal, standing side by side on the tarmac while the coffins were unloaded and transferred to the funeral director's vehicles. The two fathers had known each other only distantly before their children married, and had not been close since. They drove back to New Norfolk in Thomas's car behind the hearses, and neither of them said much on the way.

Linda Longey met her husband in the terminal. Oscar and Sarah were not brought to the airport. Jane had decided it would be too much for them, and kept them at Hobart Road with Fiona.