Kiwi nurse's death was planned, police say

Michelle Beets. Photo / Supplied

Sydney police now believe the murder of New Zealand-born nurse Michelle Beets as she arrived home last week was planned, and that robbery was not the motive.

Detectives said they were checking the personnel records at the Royal North Shore Hospital where Ms Beets was a nurse-manager, after being told a staff member sacked after Ms Beets reported the theft of drugs.

Ms Beets suffered multiple stab wounds to her chest, throat and head when she was set upon as she tried to enter her Chatswood house on Tuesday evening.

Power was cut at a junction box near the front door shortly before 6.20pm, immobilising the outdoor sensor-light system and causing loss of power to the house alarm, Sydney's Sun Herald newspaper reported.

A large attendance is expected at her funeral on Friday.

Her older brother, Marty Beets, said he would fly from New Zealand to Sydney, and would be joined by sister Robyn from the Gold Coast and another sister, Yvonne, from Britain.

Ms Beets' 87-year-old father would also travel from the Sunshine Coast.

Meanwhile, a Bay of Plenty man was to have had dinner with Ms Beets the night she was murdered.

Franz Roozendaal, from Kawerau, said the brutal killing of Ms Beets, a close friend with whom he grew up in the small Eastern Bay of Plenty town, had shocked him and his family.

Mr Roozendaal competes in dragon-boat racing and was in Australia for a regatta last week.

When he competed there, he would meet Ms Beets and her long-time partner, David Grant, for dinner, and they had made an appointment for Tuesday night - the night she was slain.

But Mr Roozendaal decided to return to New Zealand that night, and cancelled the dinner.

"The gruesome way she died is unbelievable," Mr Roozendaal said.

"My parents and Michelle's had known each other in Indonesia, and by pure coincidence they moved to Kawerau where we were living.

"We lived in each other's houses, growing up in Kawerau."