Court told of woman dead in car

A 111 call from McLaren Falls Park in the lower Kaimai Ranges on a January afternoon told an ambulance operator that a young woman had fallen, caught her jersey on a rock and strangled herself.

The evidence was given at a depositions hearing yesterday in the Tauranga District Court.

Michael John Curran, 25, unemployed, is charged with murdering Natasha Hayden, 24, in the popular park 20km from Tauranga on January 10.

He sat in the dock for most of the day, head bowed, long dark hair in a ponytail, not glancing at his wife and mother in the back of the courtroom.

Nor did he look at Mrs Hayden's husband, parents, sister and brother who were visibly upset during parts of the evidence.

A recording of the emergency call for an ambulance was played to community magistrates Heather White and Kevin Hurley. An English-accented woman reported a serious accident and a distraught man's voice said: "I don't know what to do."

Rosemary Weight, senior ambulance control officer at the St John regional operations centre in Hamilton, said she rang a life support unit in Tauranga and also notified police.

Te Puke mother Julie Beaufill said she was about to have a picnic with her children when an older Englishwoman came hurrying up asking to use her mobile phone for an emergency.

Behind her was a red car with a damaged front bumper - it had hit the picnic table she had been sharing with her husband.

Mrs Beaufill said she could see the male driver "looking anxiously up to us" as he leaned towards the passenger side. He got out of the car, walked around and opened the left front door.

The witness said that when she saw a woman's body on the reclining seat, "I had to look away straight away. It was awful".

The man, whom she identified in court as Curran, grabbed the person around the chest, shook her and urged her to wake up.

"She was really gone," said Mrs Beaufill who, worried about the children nearby and sure the passenger was dead, was unwilling to join the older woman doing CPR.

Curran was enlisted to help but "didn't seem to be participating".

He was anxious and upset, sweating heavily, leaning on the car and retching.

Mrs Beaufill said she spoke to him after the brief resuscitation attempt "so he wouldn't go into shock".

The accused told her he and "Tasha" were on a bush walk, but not on a bush track, when Natasha asked him to go back to the car and get her cigarettes.

When he returned five to 10 minutes later, she was hanging from her jersey around a rock and had tried to claw her way back. He pulled her up. The witness said Curran told her he and Natasha had been arguing all morning.

He mumbled "something about a girlfriend, four months, breaking up with someone" but did not want to talk about that.

Mrs Beaufill said she could not follow Curran's explanation of how the jersey went over Mrs Hayden's head. There was no jersey when she saw the body.

"It was really hot. I don't know why anybody would wear a jersey."

Student teacher Katrina Stephenson told of jogging in the park and hearing repeated screams of a woman in pain. Stopping and looking in the direction of the noise, she saw a parked red car.

For her own safety she ran on a short distance and took cover behind some trees and bushes off the road.

"The screaming became quieter and not so urgent. It was more like sobbing," said Ms Stephenson.

After about a minute she continued on her run.

Pathologist Jane Vuletic detailed fresh bruises on the deceased woman's arms which, she said, were consistent with blunt force, though not necessarily applied by another person.

There were no recent injury or pressure marks to the inside of the fingers and the nails were undamaged. The witness said her finding was that death was most likely due to asphyxiation, or suffocation.

Under cross-examination she agreed that a possible scenario was that the dead woman was hung by her own garment.

Greg Hollister-Jones is prosecuting and Paul Mabey, QC, represents Curran.

The case

* Michael John Curran, 25, unemployed, is charged with murdering Natasha Hayden, 24, at McLaren Falls on January 10.

* The depositions hearing will continue today.