{"id":497903,"date":"2026-06-27T07:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/497903\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T07:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:57:12","slug":"death-at-mysterious-mansion-linked-to-raft-of-ghb-overdoses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/497903\/","title":{"rendered":"Death at mysterious mansion linked to raft of GHB overdoses"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Sherwood of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

A woman has died at a Wellington castle-like mansion after drinking the drug GHB from a bottle, her friend says.<\/p>\n

The friend, who owns the former luxury dog retreat with a mysterious background, has spoken of the woman’s battles with drug addictions.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Inspector Wade Jennings said police had attended five incidents where people were believed to have overdosed on a substance that was thought to be GHB, commonly known as fantasy or liquid ecstasy.<\/p>\n

“Sadly, one person has died in relation to this matter,” Jennings said.<\/p>\n

The woman was staying at a castle-like mansion nestled in the Wellington hills, formerly known as Woofingtons.<\/p>\n

The owner of the property, Travis Mackay, told RNZ the woman had been staying with him at the property, which he says is now known as Wellington Castle.<\/p>\n

Mackay said the woman had been taking the drug for years.<\/p>\n

“She’s been trying to get off it, it’s really hard \u2026 she’s been struggling with it.”<\/p>\n

Mackay said the woman had “tapered down” from 300ml over four days to 6ml per day.<\/p>\n

“But yesterday she couldn’t find her barrel that she would use to measure it with and after another relapse day she didn’t measure her dose and took a sip from the bottle,” Mackay said.<\/p>\n

Mackay said he didn’t realise that the woman had drunk from the bottle at the time.<\/p>\n

“I thought she’d just gone to sleep.”<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until later when he tried waking her that he realised something was wrong. He said they tried dragging her out of bed and giving her CPR.<\/p>\n

“It was f\u2026ing disgusting. It was horrible.”<\/p>\n

He said the woman found it “extremely hard” battling her drug addiction.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just a mental craving, it’s a physical craving \u2026 it’s really nasty.”<\/p>\n

He said the woman was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever met”.<\/p>\n

“She was an amazingly happy woman, always smiling and joking around \u2026 She really was trying to get away from that life and that toxic crap.”<\/p>\n

He wanted those who dealt the drugs held accountable.<\/p>\n

The mansion is the subject of a recent TVNZ+ documentary series What the Hell Happened at Woofingtons?<\/p>\n

The property was raided by police in 2019, with allegations of drugs, bombs and an armed burglary, though only one person charged was a staffer who was sentenced to community detention for possession of black powder in a pyrotechnic device.<\/p>\n

Jennings said on Friday that three others remained in hospital, and one other person had been treated and discharged from medical care.<\/p>\n

“These incidents have occurred across the district, from Miramar, Brooklyn, Johnsonville, and Upper Hutt.<\/p>\n

“An investigation is underway and police are treating the matter as a priority given the risk to the public.”<\/p>\n

Jennings said police were urging the public to exercise caution, and anyone who may have this type of substance are urged not to consume it.<\/p>\n

“If you, or someone you know, are feeling unwell, please go to your nearest healthcare provider urgently.”<\/p>\n

Nearly half of GHB fake<\/p>\n

The Drug Foundation warned that nearly half of GHB tested was not what a person thought it was.<\/p>\n

Between January and March, 46 percent was not what the person expected, executive director Sarah Helm told RNZ.<\/p>\n

Helm urged anyone intending to consume the drug to get it tested first.<\/p>\n

She said the Drug Foundation had seen an uptake in the drug throughout New Zealand “for a wee while now”.<\/p>\n

The main concern was that it was very hard to tell which’G’ substance a person had, Helm added.<\/p>\n

“They’re very potent, very easy to overdose on,” she said.<\/p>\n

Helm also urged anyone intending to consume the drug to be very careful not to consume it with others, particularly alcohol and other depressants.<\/p>\n

“It can slow your body down, and then your body can begin to shut down.”<\/p>\n

Helplines<\/p>\n

Alcohol and Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797<\/p>\n

Narcotics Anonymous: NZ 0800 628 632<\/p>\n

1737 – free text\/phone to speak with a trained counsellor<\/p>\n

Youthline: 0800 376 633<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sam Sherwood of RNZ A woman has died at a Wellington castle-like mansion after drinking the drug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-497903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}