Close relatives of Kenneth Edward Leon Seymour spoke yesterday of their shock and anger at discovering his body had been exhumed at the weekend without their knowledge.

The Royal Gazette reported yesterday that Police exhumed the body of Mr. Seymour, 63, from Pembroke Parish Cemetery on Saturday morning as part of a further investigation into his death.

Mr. Seymour's wife Curley, his sister Cecily Tuzo, and cousin Rozzie Symons, who said they were his immediate family and in close contact with him, said they were stunned to read that his body had been dug up. They want to know why they were not told, and they suspect whoever asked for the body to be exhumed is "trying to cause malicious trouble".

Police said last night that they had contacted a family member, a brother, about the exhumation, and it was his responsibility to inform others.

But Police will not say who asked for the body to be dug up because it is part of the investigation into the death of Mr. Seymour, who died of a massive pulmonary embolism at his home in Lusher Lane, Warwick, on December 4 last year.

Mrs. Seymour said yesterday: "I wasn't contacted for the exhumation and his close relatives weren't contacted and we're very upset about it.

"His real family didn't know about it. His close family broke down when they read about it this morning. I just came back from burying my daddy overseas and I'm shocked."

And she said Mr. Seymour was not, as The Royal Gazette reported yesterday, homeless, but that he lived with her in Warwick. Mrs. Seymour said an autopsy was carried out on her late husband and the cause of death was found to be a massive pulmonary embolism, so she could not understand why he was being exhumed.

"Why weren't we contacted about the exhumation? Why do we have to pick up the paper and see that? Out of respect, they should have come to see us, that is what is angering us now," she said.

Mrs. Symons said: "It's just common courtesy. Who asked for this? Someone is trying to cause malicious trouble. The immediate family will not let it rest and we are taking instruction from a lawyer."

Mrs. Seymour added: "He was not a homeless man, he died with a key in his pocket. He died in his house. He came home that night and said 'Honey I'm home'."

She said that when he settled on the couch to sleep she did not disturb him, but she was unable to rouse him in the morning.

A Police spokesman said: "The next of kin, a brother, was at the exhumation and the next of kin has the responsibility to tell the people he feels are necessary to be there at that point. We find a key point of contact and that person will contact any other person."

The spokesman said he could not divulge who had asked for the body to be exhumed because it was part of the investigation.

Government Forensic Pathologist Dr. John Obafunwa examined Mr. Seymour's body at the morgue at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on Saturday, and the body was re-interned later that day. A Police statement issued on Tuesday, said the exhumation under the Public Health Act 1949 was to "further an investigation into the death of a 63-year-old man".