Funeral home defamation case with Peter Tziotzis

“The smaller funeral homes work differently to the larger ones – doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong, it’s just different.”

Images of the room were not released by the court.

Earlier, the court heard that on June 27, 2022, 56-year-old Helen Moraitis died in her sleep. Her mother, then aged 81, engaged the services of Tziotzis and his company, Melbourne Orthodox Funeral Services, to embalm her daughter and present her in an open coffin for viewing.

At the funeral, the coffin was kept shut, the court heard.

The mother later exhumed the body with a camera crew present, fearing her daughter may not be inside. It was then, the court heard, she discovered Moraitis had been buried in a body bag, without the clothing and gold jewellery her family had provided.

The court later heard that Moraitis’ body was cleared for collection from the coroner’s office on July 7, 2022. Contractors for Tziotzis then collected her body on July 18, 2022, but the judge was told it wasn’t until on or about August 1, 2022, that Tziotzis and his on-site embalmer first saw the body.

By then, she had decomposed significantly, and the defence questioned whether she was appropriately refrigerated once she arrived at Tziotzis’ funeral home.

During her evidence on Wednesday, Langford said that up to 14 bodies could fit inside the cool room, contradicting an expert who said the maximum would be about six.

She said bodies left outside the cool room, in the adjoining preparation room, were only placed there once they were embalmed or about to be, shortly before a funeral.

The embalmer said she also worked for another 10 funeral homes, averaging about 20 to 30 bodies a week, but that more than half her jobs came from Tziotzis.

Langford said that while she could not remember exactly which day she first saw Moraitis’ body, she did recall that it was not in a good state and had begun to decompose, noting a strong smell and discolouration.

Seeing this, she said, wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience for the family if an open casket funeral had been held.

The court heard that her practice was to check daily the whiteboard in the room where Tziotzis would write the names and funeral dates once they’d been scheduled. She would begin the embalming process a day or two before the service.

When asked about Moraitis’ missing jewellery, Langford said that weeks before Tziotzis’ arrest, in November 2022, when she discovered jewellery in a bag marked with the name “Moraitis”, she called Tziotzis and told him she would leave it in a safe place.

“There’s a drawer system in the mortuary. That was the safe place I could place it,” she said.

Antonia Frantzeskos told the court she had known Tziotzis for more than 10 years and was often recommended by him to cater for wakes.

She said that before the 2022 and 2023 A Current Affair reports about his business, there was never a bad word said about Tziotzis. He went above and beyond for others, she said, including when organising her father’s funeral.

“Everybody is still raving about the service he gave,” she said.

The trial continues.

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