The Canterbury Police, after completing scene examination of a shed fire on Tankerville Road in the Christchurch suburb of Hoon Hay, have confirmed that the person found deceased in the incident that took place on February 9, was a 51-year-old woman named Savita Devi Naidu. Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Worner informed that the matter has now been referred to the Coroner. “There are no suspicious circumstances and police are not seeking anyone else in connection with the death,” he said.
As reported earlier, the police and specialist officers were called to the Hoon Hay address around 8 a.m. last Thursday, after a body was discovered in a shed fire. Initially, the death was treated as unexplained and a formal identification and post-mortem was carried out. Officers also barricaded the house and remained at the address overnight in a bid to establish what happened. The police continued “to liaise with the family of the deceased, who have been assisting us with our inquiries,” Detective Inspector Darryl Sweeney had noted then. Now, the coroner will find out when, where, how, and why the death happened.
Meanwhile, the city’s Fiji Indian community has rallied behind the grief-stricken family as Ms Naidu, who worked as a nurse at the Cashmere View Rest Home and Hospital in Christchurch, hailed from Nadi in Fiji.
Sources close to the family told Indian Weekender that she was married twice and was living separately from her second husband when the unfortunate incident took place. She is survived by two sons and a daughter, who is the youngest.
Ms Naidu’s mother and siblings, some of whom are based in Sydney and others in Fiji, have already flown in to support the children, and the community is extending all the help it can to the family, sources said.