KEY POINTS:
A woman has been charged with murder after a newborn baby was yesterday found dead in the backyard of a Wellington house.
It is the second suspicious death of a young child in two days after a badly burned 22-month-old toddler died in Tokoroa on Friday. Hospital sources said Tyla-Maree Dayrll Flynn had been left untreated for 15 hours. Police are treating her death as suspicious.
The Wellington baby's body was found on Friday night in the backyard of a house on Te Mome Rd in Alicetown, Lower Hutt.
Detective Inspector Shane Cotter said a 28-year-old woman had been taken into custody and a homicide investigation had been launched.
Police declined to reveal the relationship between the baby and the woman charged, or the cause of the baby's death.
The woman will appear in Lower Hutt District Court on Monday, and police are not seeking anyone further in relation to the incident.
Neighbours said police arrived at the baby's home at 11pm on Friday. Crime scene tape was put up across the driveway and there were black tarpaulins on the lawn.
Last night officers were still at the house with a forensic team. Two cars were towed from the address - one was registered to a Wellington couple and the other to a Wellington man.
Cotter said it was traumatic for those involved in cases such as these. "Any time that newborn babies or young children die, it is distressing for everyone concerned, including police officers dealing with the matter."
Emergency department staff from Tokoroa Hospital were last night being offered counselling to deal with the trauma of trying to save Tyla-Maree.
One person involved told the Herald on Sunday the injuries the child had sustained were "horrific". Police forensic teams were at the rural home of the family yesterday as it emerged Tyla-Maree had been burned 15 hours before medical help was sought. Grant Howard, general manager of operations for Health Waikato and an intensive care specialist, confirmed the toddler was scalded with hot water, and the burns covered her head, face, shoulders and back.
Howard had spoken to the clinical director in charge of the team that treated Tyla-Maree. He said it was difficult to say whether Tyla-Maree was conscious when she was brought in, and whether she had been given first aid at home.
Burns caused by scalding tended to be larger, "because it's a liquid it tends to flow over you", but were treated the same way as other burns. "As soon as the burn has occurred if you run the part that's been burned under cold running water you drop the temperature down and you prevent further cell damage from occurring."
Mary Ann Gill, spokeswoman for Tokoroa Hospital, said the staff who tried to save Tyla-Maree were distraught over her death.
"They did all they could... They all did their job yesterday obviously but then afterwards, after the child had died, I think it's kind of hit them.
"We've brought counselling in - they're all nurses and doctors, they're all professionals, but sometimes it's just nice to be able to sit down and talk about it and say look, you did everything you could do."
Gill said it was the second major incident the hospital had dealt with this year. In February a bus crashed injuring a number of Korean tourists.
- additional reporting by Michelle Coursey, Catherine Woulfe and Jonathan Marshall
