Ernakulam native Laila refused to believe her son, Ferzil Babu, had probably died after he went missing off the Northland coast at Taiharuru in New Zealand in 2024 during a fishing trip. She held on to the hope that he might still be alive somewhere — perhaps having lost his memory and unable to find his way back home. That hope ended last week when a call from the Indian Consulate in Auckland confirmed that a skeleton found on the shore had been identified as Ferzil’s through a DNA test.

“We weren’t ready to accept that he was dead until the DNA results came. Now we just want to give him a proper farewell with prayers and a respectful burial in our parish cemetery,” says Laila.

However, the family, Laila, her husband Babu, and their younger daughter Mehana, now face uncertainty over bringing Ferzil’s mortal remains back to their native place, Labbakkadavu in Muvattupuzha. Already struggling with severe financial difficulties after his disappearance, the family says it cannot bear the cost of repatriating the remains on their own and has sought help from local representatives and the government.

Ferzil, an MCA graduate from Nirmala College in Muvattupuzha, was working in Dubai when he married Thiruvalla native Ashni Mohan in January 2023. Ashni was then employed as a nurse at a government hospital in New Zealand. After the wedding, the couple returned to their respective workplaces, but a few months later, Ferzil resigned from his job and joined her in New Zealand. Their son, Mikhael, was born in July the same year.

“It was on the evening of May 1, 2024, that Ashni called and said Ferzil (then 34) had gone missing while he was on a fishing trip with another Malayali friend, Sharath. She also told us that the authorities had launched a search operation. We didn’t know what to do,” Laila recalls.

Ferzil had been preparing to start a new job and was just a day away from joining. Until then, he had been staying at home to take care of the baby while Ashni worked. “He had also obtained a driving licence and was excited about the new job. But the day before he was to join, he went missing,” she says. A few days after the incident, Sharath’s body was recovered from the sea and taken to his native place in Alappuzha for the funeral. Ferzil, however, remained missing.

“We never gave up hope. We believed he might be alive somewhere, maybe after losing his memory,” says Mehana, who was then a degree student. “He had even promised to help me find a job in New Zealand,” she adds. Months later, the family was informed by the Indian Consulate in Auckland that a skeleton had been recovered from the sea near the area where Ferzil had gone missing. A DNA test was conducted using samples from Mikhael, and the results recently confirmed that the remains were Ferzil’s. 

Australia Today, a news portal, reported that the remains were found on a remote island named Coppermine in December 2025. The formal identification process took more than two months. He had gone missing at a spot called 'The Gap', a famous fishing spot in Taiharuru, according to the news portal. 

“The consulate has been in touch with us through email, and the formalities for repatriating the body are almost complete. Ashni, who is still in New Zealand, has also given her consent to bring the body to Kerala,” Laila says. Members of the Malayali Association there have come forward to help by pooling money for the repatriation. However, complications have delayed the process. “As we understand now, the funds collected by the association cannot be released for repatriation. We don’t know exactly what the issue is,” she says. The family says it cannot afford the expense on its own, as they are already burdened with heavy debts and have even lost their house to the bank.

Babu and Laila once ran a small-scale stitching unit in Muvattupuzha. Before Ferzil’s marriage, they had built a two-storey house at Labbakkadavu by pledging about 40 sovereigns of gold and taking a housing loan. Ferzil had been helping with the loan repayments. After he went missing, the family struggled to continue the payments, and the debt eventually piled up to around ₹40 lakh. Unable to repay the amount, the bank later attached the house. Left without a home, the family received support from St Mary’s Church in Karimannoor, which allowed them to stay in a building next to its convent. “We lost everything. Now we live here with the support of the church,” Laila says. Mehana, a graduate in Logistics and Management, is currently unemployed, adding to the family’s difficulties.

The family has approached the Muvattupuzha municipality authorities and Idukki MP Dean Kuriakose, seeking help to bring Ferzil’s remains home. “I lost my son. What they have recovered is only his skeleton, nothing for us to see one last time. But that is still my son. I want him brought here and buried in our parish cemetery in Muvattupuzha with all the proper rites,” Laila says. She adds that authorities had suggested sending the ashes after cremating the remains there, but the family is not willing to agree to that. “According to our faith, he must be buried with all the rituals. That is the only thing we ask for now,” she says.