Arrest over fatal stabbing

Police at the apartment where the woman died. Photo / Jason Dorday

A 53-year-old woman was stabbed to death in her home in the upmarket Auckland suburb of Remuera on Friday night.

A 24-year-old woman, who police said has links to the deceased, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday charged with assault.

Further charges are expected when the woman reappears in court tomorrow.

Police and ambulance were called to an apartment building on Remuera Rd at 9.30pm where they found the woman critically injured in a second-floor apartment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Kevin Hooper said: "Efforts to resuscitate the deceased were unsuccessful and she died at the address."

Frightened residents were ordered to stay inside and lock their doors by police while the suspect was taken into police custody.

Rosina Donnelly, who was staying at a friend's apartment two doors from where the woman was stabbed, said she came home at around 9.30pm to find an ambulance in the driveway.

"I walked up the side stairs and there was a pool of blood outside their front door," she said.

Donnelly went inside her apartment and heard someone yell to "lock the doors" from the balcony on the other side of the building.

A short time later she heard police yelling for the suspect to "get down and put your hands behind your head".

Donnelly added: "I wasn't too worried because the house was all locked up and there were plenty of police around.

"But it's not really something you expect to happen around here."

Donnelly said she used to see the woman accused of assault sitting outside the apartment block smoking cigarettes.

"I would say 'hi', but she would never respond."

Another neighbour, Yu-Ling Bartlett-Wright, said: "I see her everyday, I couldn't believe she did it."

Bartlett-Wright, who lives downstairs, said she had heard arguing upstairs in the past but nothing serious and she couldn't be sure which apartment it was coming from.

The apartment building and a large courtyard behind it remained cordoned off yesterday afternoon as forensics officers conducted a search of the area.

Househunters who turned up at the block to view empty apartments were turned away.

Lawyer John Anderson, representing the accused, successfully argued for name suppression so that the woman's family could be informed.

The order prohibits publication of the names of the alleged offender, the victim and the circumstances around the death.

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