The Press
January 9 2007
Homicide inquiry
by Jo McKenzie-McLean
A young homicide victim was a shy
child with a "great big smile" and a loving nature, but was teased at
school because she was black and sounded different, say people who knew her.
Charlene Makaza, 10, died in
Christchurch Hospital on Sunday morning after apparently being suffocated at
her home in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.
Police say a pathologist's report
shows Charlene was suffocated by "a second person" and they are
treating her death as a homicide.
Charlene was found with breathing
difficulties in her bed on Saturday by her aunt and uncle at their home in Hollyford Avenue.
Her condition deteriorated through
the day and she died without regaining consciousness.
Wairakei School principal Lee McArthur said
Charlene's death was a tragedy.
"It's just awful. You just
don't expect these things to happen," McArthur said.
"Charlene was a friendly, kind
and helpful pupil. She found it cold here but had adjusted. She was happy at school, she had friends at school and was really well liked
by everybody."
She played netball, sang in the
choir and particularly enjoyed helping out younger children, McArthur said.
"Charlene loved to talk and was always ready to share her stories with a
good dose of humour. She was a good person with a
great big smile and we will all miss her."
The girls' adoptive parents had been
supportive in their niece's learning, McArthur said.
"Naturally, she had come from a
different culture and different style of learning and English was her second
language," McArthur said.
"She had extra tuition and her
aunt was very supportive of that. We talked about Charlene and her learning
quite often. We would see them quite regularly."
School friend and neighbour Karanimata Swete, 10, said Charlene was energetic and "not boring
like other people".
"We just played netball and
played on the monkey bars together. And we'd walk to school together," she
said.
"She said she had come from
Zimbabwe and said she really liked it over in New Zealand -- better than
Zimbabwe."
Some of the pupils could be mean to
Charlene at times, she said. "People at school gave her a hard time
because she was black and came from another country and just because her voice
was so low."
Pastor Thomas Gonera
said Charlene regularly attended church.
"She was quite a happy, warm,
loving little girl. She would play with other kids. She was also involved with
child evangelism, where a group of children learn the Bible and all sorts of
things," he said.
"She really enjoyed being here,
making new friends from different nationalities. She enjoyed school and spoke a
lot about her teacher and how many friends she was making."
Detective Inspector Malcolm Johnston
said an extensive scene examination had ruled out the possibility that an
intruder had broken into the house.
Charlene was living at the house
with her 12-year-old sister, aunt and uncle, and two adult cousins, aged 20 and
24. They were all in the house when she was found.
Her parents died in Zimbabwe when
she was young, and she and her sister immigrated over a year ago. Her adoptive
family had been in Christchurch for about three years.
The pathologist's report yesterday
found she had been suffocated, Johnston said. "He's of the view it's not
natural and (injuries) have been inflicted by a second person," he said.
"I've got 40 detectives working
long hours on the death of a 10-year-old girl who did not die of natural
causes, who did not die by accident and who died, as the pathologist has said,
by suspected suffocation. Therefore it is a homicide inquiry."
There was no evidence to suggest she
had been sick or ill, he said. Further tests would be done to determine the
cause of Charlene's death.
He would not comment on whether she
had been sexually assaulted. "We don't want to get into any other aspects
of the investigation. There are so many things we've got to establish."
Neighbour Gavin Caldwell said many of the neighbours had been scared for their families since the
killing. "We are all just wanting answers."
Neighbour Corey Bryan, 17, said his family
had been "freaked out" by the death.
"Mum went over to the police
and asked if it was safe for her two daughters to be at home with some maniac
on the loose killing people," he said.
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CAPTION:
Killed: a pathologist's report says
Charlene Makaza, 10, was suffocated in her Christchurch home last weekend
"by a second person". No intruder, police say