Source: Radio New Zealand
David Stanely Hart’s remains were found under a house on Marlborough St in Mt Eden during renovations in 2020. (File photo) RNZ / Dan Cook
How a reclusive man who was encased in concrete under his own Auckland villa for more than a decade died may never be known, as a Coroner rules his death “undetermined”.
Little was publicly known about David Stanely Hart, including the date he died, which Coroner Alexander Ho said it was somewhere between March 1 2004, and April 30 that same year.
It wasn’t until January 31, 2020, his skeletonised remains were found during renovations at what was once his home on Mt Eden’s Marlborough St.
Besides his Mt Eden boarding house, Hart, 62, also owned an old miner’s cabin in the small West Coast town of Blackball where he would stay and indulge his passion for panning for gold.
Hart’s body was found in the basement of the Marlborough St property. (File photo) RNZ / Dan Cook
Neville Sheehan, who ran the Nelson Creek Hotel and lived across the road from Hart’s cabin, said while many people seemed to take issue with Hart he found him to be “pretty bloody good”.
Sheehan said Hart and his brother came to the area often in the 70s and 80s to gold mine and “used to argue a bit”.
While Hart was home in Auckland Sheehan would look after his property for him and graze sheep on the land.
“I always got on really well with him. I’d go over there and service his motors. His brother and him used to argue about where they were going and what they were doing.
“The last time I saw them they had a fight and David said ‘we’re going’, and they packed up and went back to Auckland, never saw him again.”
Sheehan said the cottage fell into disrepair and was eventually sold by the Grey District Council in 2020.
David Stanley Hart’s cabin in Blackball was left vacant for many years. MEG FULFORD / SUPPLIED
Meg Fulford, grew up in Blackball and is now the owner of Hart’s property there. The cabin has since been demolished.
She didn’t remember Hart well as she was a child when he would have been in town, but remembered when she moved back in 2012 his land was used for grazing by locals.
Hart’s remains were eventually found inside a hollow concrete mound protruding from a pile of dirt inside his basement.
Sheehan said police ended up travelling to Blackball and spoke with him to try and piece together Hart’s life.
What happened to David Hart?
According to Coroner Ho’s finding, forensic pathologist Dr Rexson Tse found a linear fracture on the back of Hart’s skull, but due to skeletonisation, he couldn’t say whether it occurred before or after death.
Tse said the force required to cause the fracture would have been substantial. A rib fracture was also found on his left side.
Due to the state of the remains, Tse couldn’t ascertain a cause of death, but said Hart could have died from his head injury.
Hart had been running the Marlborough St property as an unlicensed boarding house since the early 1990s. Coroner Ho said tenants paid him weekly, usually in cash.
Neighbours on the street described Hart as a “generally unlikable and argumentative individual” who they tried to avoid, Ho said.
Coroner Alexander Ho (File photo) Stuff / Kavinda Herath
They recalled him holding odd opinions on certain topics such as politics and aliens. They said he had frequent arguments with his boarders and would often evict them without warning.
In the early 2000’s a man named Gabriel Ormsby, also known as Gabriel D’Angelo, started boarding. He was still there in 2004 when a fellow boarder said he saw Ormsby and Hart in a physical altercation. The boarder went said Hart had a visible injury to his head.
Coroner Ho said that by the end of April 2004, Ormsby had the power account for the property changed from Hart’s name to his and boarders recalled Ormsby telling them he had taken over management and they should pay him from then on.
Malcolm, a Marlborough St neighbour, earlier told RNZ, he never met Hart, but knew Ormsby.
“They were really great neighbours. There was probably three or four older guys that lived there. Gabriel was a sweetheart.
“It was an unusual situation in this neighbourhood but they seemed really nice.”
Coroner Ho found no boarder recalled seeing Hart after 2004.
One boarder said Hart may have been planning to travel to Australia, but Ho said immigration records had shown Hart didn’t use his passport after 2003.
Hart failed to turn up to a medical appointment in June 2004 and his last banking transaction was in March 2004.
‘Masquerading as Mr Hart’
In 2005, Blackball resident Donna Newman, who was renting on the same street as Hart’s vacant cabin, was interested in buying Hart’s property.
The Blackball township. (File photo) Blackball’s Inn
Coroner Ho said she found a number for him and she spoke on the phone three or four times to a person she believed was Hart. Two letters were also sent from a person purporting to be Hart.
The person asked for $7000 for the property and also sent a letter to the Grey District Council advising Newman now owned the property.
Newman also received a parcel from the person, which had been matched by a handwriting expert to Ormsby.
Ormsby’s handwriting on the parcel meant there were two possibilities, Ho said.
“The first is that Mr Ormsby was assisting Mr Hart in this matter… the second is Mr Ormsby was masquerading as Mr Hart in relation to the Blackball property.”
Coroner Ho said the most likely scenario was that Hart died in 2004 and Ormsby knew this and was most likely the person talking to Newman.
Rate payments for the Mt Eden house continued until 2010 with the property going into arrears in July 2011. Ormsby continued living at the property until his death in 2016.
The house then fell into a state of disrepair. Auckland Council notified ASB who paid the rates arrears and the bank hired a private investigator to try and find Hart.
The house was sold in 2019 after ASB applied to the High Court to sell it and renovations began later that year.
‘I believe in redemption’
Emere McDonald, met Ormsby about 2011 and visited the Marlborough St property multiple times.
She had never heard of Hart and said she knew Ormsby as a singer, songwriter, poet and painter.
McDonald said Ormsby had saved the life of her friend Tim Birch, who had been homeless.
She said she was surprised to hear about what happened to Hart as she knew Ormsby as a “very caring, very creative” man.
“I got the impression he redeemed himself. I believe in redemption, I knew he had difficulties in the past…. I think he did redeem himself.
“I thought he was a remarkable person who had gone through real change, a metamorphosis.”
What police say
Police completed their investigation into Hart’s death in 2025.
The investigator in charge told Coroner Ho that evidence suggested Hart’s body was disposed of by another person who had ongoing access to the house.
“Around the time of his death Hart physically conflicted with Ormsby. Ormsby told multiple lies about the reason for Hart being absent and continued years later attempting to sell the Blackball property.
“This indicates he knew Hart was not alive to contest his actions.”
The investigator said Ormsby at least knew about the death, but disposing of a body did not prove criminal culpability in the death itself.
There was not enough evidence to charge Ormsby, who had already died, and there were no other suspects, the investigator said.
Coroner Ho accepted this evidence and said it was not possible to determine if Hart had been murdered.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand