Emergency services were called to the motel where the pair were after 3.30am on Saturday. <\/p>\n
The woman was unresponsive and could not be revived. <\/p>\n
\u201cA post-mortem examination has been completed, and police are awaiting the results,\u201d said Detective Senior Sergeant Dan Overend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese results are not expected to be finalised for several weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA man who was present at the motel on Saturday night was taken into custody at the time and has been charged with an unrelated drug offence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Official documents confirm he is facing two charges and appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Monday. <\/p>\n
His next scheduled court appearance is on July 28. <\/p>\n
Overend said police continued to provide support to her family.<\/p>\n
Friends of the woman paid tribute to her online. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur precious friend died tragically and suddenly … our thoughts and all our aroha are with her treasured son,\u201c said one friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so heartbroken for you, darling. <\/p>\n
\u201cRest in peace… Moe mai r\u0101. You were so loved by us all, by our kids and our wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man who was with the woman at the motel when she died has appeared in court on unrelated drug charges. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
Another friend told the Herald: “She was such a kind, lovely, considerate person who got on well with everyone; we are so shocked and upset by what has happened.<\/p>\n
“She is so dear to us; we consider her family,” she said. <\/p>\n
The woman was \u201cdevastated\u201d and \u201cshattered\u201d when her son told her about the death. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe put off telling me for a day because he knew how upset I would be… then we sat and cried and cried and cried,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what transpired… we\u2019re really concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman had known the man at the motel with her for some time, her friend said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it must have happened at home and her poor son must have woken up to find his mum dead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut apparently she was at this motel with (the man). I don\u2019t think there was any relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was just such a beautiful person – everyone loved her. I saw her just last week; she came and bought me dinner and some beautiful flowers… she pulled her chair over at the dinner table to sit right next to me…<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to believe that she\u2019s gone. She was wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman worked as a receptionist at a medical centre, and though she had some troubles in her life, she was doing well.<\/p>\n
She was living in a \u201clovely\u201d rented house, and her son was \u201cthe sweetest, most gorgeous\u201d boy whom she doted on. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just absolutely devastating,\u201d her friend said.<\/p>\n
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers Christchurch issues and national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence and homicides. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emergency services were called to the motel where the pair were after 3.30am on Saturday. The woman was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,1975,1558,32294,4487,39919,634,1359,6179,3401,6119,12632,9066,5158,4274,6178,111,43,139,69,675,29263,28758,5424,24994,23333,4767,1354],"class_list":["post-513322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-at","tag-been","tag-charge","tag-christchurch","tag-colombo","tag-death","tag-described","tag-died","tag-drug","tag-faces","tag-friend","tag-loved","tag-man","tag-motel","tag-mother","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-precious","tag-probe","tag-street","tag-sudden","tag-suddenly","tag-weekend","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513322","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=513322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}