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The 21-year-old Dunedin woman killed in a stabbing attack in St Kilda on Monday night had broken up with her 50-year-old partner and moved her last belongings out earlier that day, her friends understand.
Horrified neighbours witnessed a man wielding a knife and chasing the bloodied woman on to Bay View Rd about 9pm.
One witness said the man then stabbed himself three or four times in the chest, collapsed, then got to his feet before he stabbed himself again.
The woman collapsed in a nearby carport and died before emergency services had a chance to tend to her.
Detective Senior Sergeant Steve McGregor, the officer in charge of the homicide investigation dubbed Operation Moa, said the man had five stab wounds in his chest and was in a stable condition in Dunedin Hospital last night.
ESR scientists and some of the 36 police working on the case spent the day examining the scenes yesterday and interviewing witnesses and neighbours, but charges are yet to be laid.
The woman was not named last night because family members were still to be notified.
Two of the woman's friends, who yesterday visited the crime scene to inquire about laying flowers, said the three of them, and one of the man's older children, had all attended Queens High School together.
The friends had last been in touch with the dead woman about four days ago, but had heard from other friends what had happened.
"It is so, so sad. She was a really lovely, lovely person. She had a heart of gold. She just laughed at everything. She was a really strong chick," one of the friends said.
She had a 3-year-old daughter with the man, but they understood in the days before her death the woman had been in the process of getting out of the "controlling relationship" she was in. Police said the daughter was now in the care of the woman's family.
A work colleague of the man, who earlier stopped outside the police cordon, said the man was from Rarotonga. He had been "a bit funny for the past few weeks" and was "a bit down".
Neighbours of the couple said they were in disbelief at what had happened.
It is understood the man had other children from a previous relationship.
Police have appealed for anyone with any information about the incident to call their nearest police station or visit a police caravan set up on Bay View Rd near Kings High School.
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
