The ashes of a Dagenham dad who was discovered in a public lake are set to be flown back to his childhood home in South Africa.
Three men charged with Neill Buchel’s murder, including his housemate Scott Hunt, are due to enter pleas at the Old Bailey on Thursday next week. Neill’s leg was discovered in White Hart Lakes on April 1, followed by the rest of his body over the next two days.
Two others have been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
“We are planning a private funeral and I will be bringing his ashes back to South Africa to scatter at a beach he used to surf at as a teenager,” his mother Trish Kell told the Post from her home in Durban.
“I feel very sad, but at the same time relieved that Neill has been returned to us, that we can say our goodbyes and tell his spirit how much we love him and miss him every day, and that we can privately grieve for him and bring him home and give him to the sea which he loved so much.
“The anger at such a senseless death has subsided and our whole family has a deep sadness.
“One never gets over it, but you get through it. What a waste of a young life.”
Neill, who lived in Braintree Road with murder suspect Hunt, 41, is survived by his estranged wife, Sharon, and two daughters, Megan and Caitlin.
Chas Quye, 36, of Stansgate Road, Dagenham, and Elvis Kwiatkowski, 35, of Clopton Close, Royston, Hertfordshire, have also been charged with murder. Colin Bushaway, 60, of Gregory Crescent, Eltham, has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, as has Bradley Andison, 46, of Villa Road, Rochester, Kent.
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