FAMILY members watched the harrowing spectacle of seeing a loved one's coffin exhumed from its grave. The coffin of Stephen Smith, of Haydon Wick, Swindon, was lifted from the ground as part of a police investigation into his unexplained death.

The decision to dig up the body of the 44-year-old electrical engineer came after fresh information came to light following his burial.

There was a family presence at the graveside while a lay preacher led a brief service as the coffin emerged from the ground, but Mr Smith's wife and children were too upset to attend.

By mid morning undertakers had placed the coffin in a waiting hearse before it was whisked away under a police motorcade to Southmead Hospital in Bristol where a second post-mortem is being carried out.

Forensic teams began digging yesterday in preparation for the exhumation and took place under the cover of a police-guarded tent, set up over the grave.

Father-of-three Mr Smith, of Hudson Way, was buried on June 24 after he died suddenly at his home in Haydon Wick, Swindon on June 15.

No inquest was deemed necessary by pathologists at the time but three weeks after the burial "previously unknown information was received," said the officer leading the investigation, Detective Inspector James Vaughan, of Wiltshire Police.

After initial inquiries by his team of detectives, the officer was instructed by the Wiltshire coroner David Masters to exhume Mr Smith from his grave at Mayshill Cemetery, in Nibley, near Yate, South Gloucestershire.

Senior officers at the scene this morning said all lines of inquiry were being re-opened in what has now become an unexplained death.

"Had the pathologist known the information we know now there may have been a different conclusion," said DI Vaughan.

A 10-strong investigation team entered the tent at 2.30pm yesterday. Among their number were two workers from South Gloucester-shire District Council who dug down to within a foot of the coffin.

The exhumation was ordered by the Wiltshire coroner but finally authorised by the Avon coroner Paul Forrest, who covers South Gloucestershire.

Mr Smith was married to Sybille and had three children Andrew, Stephy and Jenny. In a death notice in the Evening Advertiser he was described by his family as a "caring husband" and as a "devoted father" who would "never be forgotten by all his nieces, nephews and friends."

Tamsin Davis