Pronunciation of "death, dead"

[Rudolph C Troike]

Awhile back I accidentally happened to catch a segment of an animal
program on TV while channel-surfing, and was surprised to hear the
narrator, who sounded possibly like a New Zealander, pronounce both
"death" and "dead" with /iy/, the vowel of "see". I hadn't heard this
before, and wonder if anyone might be familiar with the program (which
seemed to be a "regular" on the channel) or would know otherwise where
this pronunciation is current. (It's not surprising in itself, given the
fate of other "ea" words, and the alternation in "deaf", but I had not
heard it before.)

        Thanks,

        Rudy