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MARK TAYLOR / Stuff
Police launched a homicide investigation in Hamilton after a seriously injured woman died of her injuries on Wednesday night.
A woman who was murdered at her Hamilton home is believed to have left behind four children, the youngest believed to be only a few months old.
Police received a report of an assault at an address in Kentucky Crescent around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, a police spokeswoman said.
There they found a 30-year-old woman seriously injured. Ngawai Kararaina Maria Himiona died at the scene shortly thereafter.
On Thursday morning, police charged a 34-year-old man with murder and wounding with the intent to cause serious bodily harm. He appeared briefly in Hamilton District Court the same day and was placed in pretrial detention to reappear on February 2.
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* Woman found attacked in Hamilton dies, homicide investigation begins
MARK TAYLOR / Stuff
Flowers had been left in the mailbox at the property where a woman was killed Wednesday night.
A neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said four children lived on the Hamilton property with the woman and a man.
He said that his children had played with the victim’s children and had attended the same local schools.
She believed the four children were two boys, around 13 and 11 years old, and two younger girls, around four years and four months old.
He heard nothing the night of the incident.
“I woke up and saw the police outside in the morning. I can’t believe I didn’t hear anything. “
He said the victim greeted when they picked up their children from school, but did not know her that well, as the woman used to keep to herself most of the time.
The neighbor said that the street was quite quiet and safe. The couple had lived in the home for more than the three years that she had lived in the area.
She said the man’s parents were often in the house.
“I’d say her dad was there every day.”
There were flowers in the mailbox on Friday morning and the police cordon had been removed.
On Thursday, a neighbor said that a woman’s children had run out of the house screaming, “Mama is dead.”
A man living on the street, who did not want to be named, said the couple who lived there were kept secret.
He said that he had known the people who had lived in the house for years, since they moved in, and that they had been very quiet.
At least 63 people have died in suspicious or homicidal circumstances in New Zealand so far in 2020.
At the same time, last year there were 128 alleged homicides. Last year’s death toll closed at 130, including the 51 people killed in the Christchurch terror attack.
On average, there are 71 homicides in New Zealand each year. The rate of 1.6 homicides per 100,000 people is well below the OECD average of 3.6 per 100,000.
The data in the Homicide Report is provisional and may change depending on the results of investigations and court cases.
