Partner facing assault charge

Police search for clues. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

A mother of six found dead after a domestic incident is related to a former Women's Refuge boss.

Police have confirmed a homicide inquiry and cordoned off the home of Luana "Arni" Raukawa, 38, after her body was found in the bedroom of her family home.

She shared the home in the Bay of Plenty forestry village of Kaingaroa with her partner, 33, who appeared before Rotorua District Court yesterday charged with assault.

The Herald on Sunday has confirmed former Women's Refuge chief executive Merepeka Raukawa-Tait is related to the dead woman. She was not available for comment.

Shop owners Pat Hitua and Pam Kaitapanui, where Raukawa worked casually, were in the store late Friday when the ambulance raced past.

"We thought someone had had a turn, especially when we saw no one was in the ambulance when it left. We were shocked to hear it was Arni. She would come in and give us a hand - she was good with the customers.

"She was fun, a lovely person and we'll miss her."

Hitua said Arni lived at the house with her partner and his mother, who had left on Friday night to take a relative to Auckland Airport.

The ambulance arrived in the hours that followed.

Friends and family gathered outside the house yesterday as Environmental Science and Research forensic scientists scoured the scene for evidence. They could be seen searching the garden as well as inside the rundown state house.

A man was holding back the tears by biting on his lip, while a woman sobbed incoherently in the middle of the street. Cries of "why, why" and "she was a mum" could be heard.

The dead woman is believed to have had six children in their teens. They live with their father outside Kaingaroa.

Raukawa's body was taken to Auckland yesterday for a post-mortem examination and results are expected today.

One Kaingaroa resident said he was not overly surprised to hear of a violent death in the village.

"There's always something going on," said the man, who did not wish to be identified for fear of retaliation.

"About six times a year the police cordon a house off. It's a bit frightening sometimes but there's nothing you can do. You learn to live with it."

Kaine Lewis, 17, who was killed in Murupara on October 3, lived in Kaingaroa.

Six people have been charged with his murder and local iwi Ngati Manawa have placed a rahui (exclusion zone) on violence on Kaingaroa Forest and surrounding areas.

Two men were shot and another stabbed in an incident in July, which led to police locking down the village for several hours and, in May, a man was arrested after attacking two people with an axe and shooting at them, causing facial injuries.