The headstone which went missing from a Cromwell grave some time within the past four years has been found, thanks to a news article and photograph in Tuesday's Otago Daily Times.
And the Alexandra woman who paid for the headstone on an unmarked grave of a distant relative, Helena DeLilla, is ''grateful'' and ''absolutely thrilled'' it has been found.
Without the news article, Mrs DeLilla believed she would not have got it back.
Cromwell police contacted her yesterday to say a man had phoned them to say he had the headstone.
Mrs DeLilla said she was told the man had found it lying in grass broken away from its foundation and had put it in his garage.
''The top part is apparently fine. I'll pick it up and have it put back in place,'' she said.
She would contact the Central Otago District Council, responsible for the cemetery, to see how that should be done.
''I've got a headstone, but I'm not sure how to go about putting it back.''
When she had it installed, the granite headstone cost about $500, but she was prepared to put a new one up if the original was not found.
The grave was that of her great-great-grandfather's sibling George Paul, born in Scotland on November 2, 1820.
He came to New Zealand, was a gold miner on the Nevis River and lived and worked around Central Otago. A single man, he died on July 20, 1891, aged 70 years, and was buried at the Cromwell Cemetery, in a grave without a headstone.
Mrs DeLilla had a headstone put on the grave in 2009, and she photographed it. She and her husband shifted to Alexandra about four months ago, and they went to the grave to get another photograph, but discovered that the headstone was missing.
