Woman pronounced dead four years after disappearance - but questions remain
Mary Berrington has officially died, four years after she woke, grabbed her handbag, and walked out into an Upper Hutt winters night. The black-and-white pronouncement means little to her daughter, Susan Geerars, other than the fact she can now close her mothers bank account. A coroners findings do not say how her mum died - nor when, where, or why. The only certainty is that her remains must be out there, somewhere. The last that was known of Berrington was that her breathing machine was turned off at 12.22am on July 20, 2016. Geerars has figured out that her mother took her handbag as she left the house and locked the door on leaving. READ MORE: * Another Christmas, another New Year without beloved missing mum Mary Berrington * Mary Berrington's daughter Susan Geerars hopes for answers ahead of third anniversary of disappearance * 'Cold Case' family seeks new inquest into their mother's death 40 years on The last possible sighting of Berrington was grainy CCTV footage of her walking down Fergusson Drive at about 12.30am on July 20 exactly four years ago. Geerars s only real solace in the Coroners findings was that it did not blame her mothers mental health issues for the death. It only said Berrington died on or after July 20, 2016 of unknown causes and her body was presumed to be lost or irrecoverable. Really, Geerars has known her mother was dead for years. Within months of her disappearance, she had stopped her benefit payments and moved her belongings into storage. A year after that disappearance, Geerars ended the storage facility rental and kept just her mothers favourite clothes a black chiffon top, a beaded necklace Geerars had made her, and a black floral dress she hoped to one day bury her in. In her mind, Geerars cant rule out the chance foul play was behind her mothers death. Over the years, she knew the patterns of her mothers bipolar disorder. The day before she left, Berrington was coming out of a slump. Her modus operandi when feeling low was to stay in bed, not to go out. I honestly cant see how she could make herself disappear, Geerars said. But the only hope of finding out if there was foul play would be if her mothers remains were one day found. Geerars still has nightmares about the darker possibilities of what could have happened. Her own children aged 3-and-a-half and four months when she disappeared now talk matter-of-factly about Grandma missing, and wonder when she will be found. One of the hardest parts was that Berringtons mother Geerars grandmother lived for two years after her daughters disappearance. She died with dementia two years ago and nobody had wanted to hurt her by telling her what had happened. She passed away never knowing her eldest daughter was missing.