Bedside hearing over domestic killings

Teresa Audrey Gunn

A special court hearing was held in Tauranga Hospital yesterday for a 33-year-old Waikato man charged following the killing of his former partner and her new boyfriend.

Teresa Audrey Gunn, also known as Teresa Kohu, 27, and George Andrew Grabner, 39, were found stabbed to death soon after neighbours heard loud arguments at the couple's Greerton home on Sunday night.

Ms Gunn's former partner, who is also the father of three of her four children, was one of two men who suffered serious stab wounds in the incident.

A special sitting of the Tauranga District Court was held at his bedside yesterday afternoon after he was charged with possession of a knife.

He was remanded in custody until December 20, and police have said further charges are likely.

Five people were in the house when the attacks happened, including Ms Gunn, her sister Mariana, Mariana's baby, Mariana's partner Wiki Ngarimu, and Mr Grabner.

Mr Ngarimu suffered a stab to the neck. Surgeons operated on him for four hours on Sunday night, and he remains in a serious condition.

The house where the violence began and another next door where it is understood Ms Gunn's body was found remained cordoned off yesterday.

Blood could be seen on the window sill and down the wall. Flowers were laid outside yesterday, and Maori blessings were performed.

Mr Grabner died in the back yard of a house across the street. His family, who live in Whangarei, said his funeral would be on Saturday.

Teresa Gunn's body will be taken today to Pakanae Marae in Opononi, on the Hokianga harbour. She will be buried alongside her first child, a daughter who died of cot death.

Yesterday, her grieving father, Dave Gunn, said his daughter and her former partner split up in June. The man went to live in a small Waikato settlement.

Until May the pair had been looking after three children, the family living together in Greerton.

Mr Gunn said he had fallen out with his daughter early in the year and was worried for his grandchildren. The father-daughter relationship had been "amicable but a bit off-and-on".

In February, Mr Gunn had a punch-up with the man remanded yesterday, whom he described as all muscle, standing over 6ft (1.83m).

He said the punch-up was provoked by "the way he swore at my [eldest] grandson".

Sunday's tragedy had devastated the extended Gunn family, 70 of whom were gathered in the Hamilton home yesterday.