Family wait for answers following healthy girl's sudden death

Jaylene Pai was found dead in her bed. Photo / Supplied

The family of a fit and healthy 13-year-old girl are waiting for answers after she died in her sleep hours after she had been happily playing with a friend.

Jaylene Carol Rossena Pai, nicknamed "Sparky" by her grandfather because of her bright green eyes, will today be farewelled at a Kaeo marae as her family await autopsy results from her sudden death.

The Kaitaia College student, an avid kickboxer, had suffered from asthma for most of her life, but it hadn't stopped her being a normal teenager.

She would use an inhaler if she felt herself becoming short of breath and up until a month ago had never had to go to hospital.

She had suffered a minor asthma attack and was hooked up to oxygen for about three days, her mother, Shiree Pai, said. However, she was feeling much better and had been talking about starting kickboxing classes again.

On Saturday, the day before Jaylene died, a friend had come over to spend the night. They had watched television with Jaylene's parents and six brothers and sisters in the family lounge before going to bed, in a room Jaylene shares with two younger sisters, about midnight.

"We always stayed up late and watched TV together," Mrs Pai said.

"She seemed really happy and healthy. She came into my room and said, 'Good night', and that she loved me."

The next morning, about 7am, Jaylene's 9-year-old sister came running into her parents' room saying the teenager's lips had turned blue. Mrs Pai discovered her daughter dead in her bed.

"We were all really shocked," she said.

"We were really close. We were mother and daughter but we were also best friends."

Mrs Pai said a pathologist at Whangarei Hospital had carried out an autopsy but was awaiting test results and would have a clearer idea of the cause of Jaylene's death next week.

"She was bubbly ... never unhappy, always had time for other people."

A funeral service will be held today at the Patunga Marae, where the family of Jaylene's father Robert are from.