A British neighbour of a Christchurch-based engineer, who died while holidaying in Morocco, believes he threw himself off a building overwhelmed by grief following his wife's death days earlier.
Four boys, aged between 11 and 17, were orphaned when their Christchurch-based father Roger and his wife Mathilde Lamb, known as Tilly, died while the family was on holiday in Morocco.
Staff at Christchurch engineering firm GHD, where Mr Lamb, 47, worked, were told he died after falling when he went to the aid of his wife Mathilde Lamb when she apparently slipped and fell to her death down a cliff in the north African country.
However, the British Embassy based in Rabat told BBC the couple, originally from Pensham in Worcestershire, died in separate falls in resort of Essaouira.
An embassy spokeswoman said Mrs Lamb, 44, fell from a window of an apartment, with Mr Lamb falling downstairs at a different building a few days later. They both died in hospital.
The exact circumstances of the deaths are being investigated.
A neighbour of the couple told Britain's Daily Mail: "You can only imagine Roger was so overcome with grief at the loss of his wife he decided he could no longer carry on without her."
"Roger and Tilly were pillars of this community. It is an absolute tragedy for the family and their four lovely boys.
"We will probably have to wait a while before the exact details come out."
The paper also reported that Mr Lamb had been arranging for the rest of his family to move to New Zealand.
The couple's four sons have since returned to Britain.
In a statement given to the BBC the couple's families said they were "deeply shocked and saddened by their tragic deaths"
"Our principal concern at the moment is to provide love and support to their four sons."
Mrs Lamb's brother-in-law Mark Rogerson said the children were being cared for by relatives back in Britain.
The family knew very few details about what happened, but were told of Mrs Lamb's death last Thursday. They then heard about Mr Lamb's death on Monday, Mr Rogerson said.
Mr Lamb was a geotechnical engineer who moved to Christchurch from England last year. The rest of his family remained at home in Worcestershire.
He was educated at Birmingham University, and was used to outdoor adventuring, as he was a keen fell runner in Great Britain.
The British High Commission in Wellington told NZPA it was aware of the deaths but it did not know Mr Lamb was based in Christchurch. A spokesman for the commission said information he had seen differed from the report that the couple died while on tramping tip.
An unnamed GHD employee said staff had been told of the tragedy by email.
It was "real crazy" and staff were struggling to deal with the shock of a almost unbelievable story, they said.
