{"id":623005,"date":"2026-10-07T06:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T06:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623005\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T06:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T06:10:11","slug":"waiheke-womans-death-within-hour-of-welfare-check-deemed-suspicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623005\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiheke woman&#8217;s death within hour of welfare check deemed &#8216;suspicious&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">A Waiheke Island woman found alive and well by emergency services was discovered unresponsive in her bed less than an hour later \u2013 with police now saying her death is suspicious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Chantelle McLaughlin-Middlemiss, 32, died at her Onetangi property on the island in the Hauraki Gulf on June 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend said police believed some people knew what had happened to her and urged them to come forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;From our investigation we believe that there are some people that have information that is important to the case,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Emergency services had first gone to the Waiheke Rd address at about 2.42pm after a report that McLaughlin-Middlemiss might be dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;These concerns were allayed and no immediate concerns required any intervention,&#8221; Friend said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Calls were then made to her family, and people known to them went to the property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;At around 3.30pm, people known to the family located Chantelle unresponsive in bed. First aid was provided and emergency services were called,&#8221; Friend said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;Fire and ambulance staff attended but sadly could not revive her, and Chantelle was pronounced deceased.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/detective-senior-sergeant-martin-friend-PQ5WFEBC4JDRRMHMNQD2KOUWDA.jpg\" alt=\"Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Police have run the investigation, named Operation Gannon, since June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Friend said investigators were focused on that gap of under an hour, and on anyone McLaughlin-Middlemiss had contact with that day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;I recognise there may be mixed loyalties at play, and some people might feel challenged to come forward,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;We are determined on finding out what has led to Chantelle&#8217;s death. We owe it to her wh\u0101nau and children to find these answers, so we ask you to speak with us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Waiheke Island woman found alive and well by emergency services was discovered unresponsive in her bed less&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,67,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-623005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623005","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=623005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}