{"id":624137,"date":"2026-10-08T07:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624137\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:28:11","slug":"waiheke-island-suspicious-death-witnesses-describe-chantelle-mclaughlin-middlemiss-final-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624137\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiheke Island \u2018suspicious\u2019 death: Witnesses describe Chantelle McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u2019 final night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taxi driver Kevin Lauchlan was drinking that night at Charlie Farley\u2019s in \u014cnetangi and socialised with McLaughlin-Middlemiss, who he said was a regular at the pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was sweet as, joking like normal,\u201d Lauchlan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never suspect anything like that is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the night, McLaughlin-Middlemiss asked Lauchlan twice about the background music playing and whether he liked the songs.<\/p>\n

They were older, good tunes, he said.<\/p>\n

\"ChantelleChantelle McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u00a0was a regular at Charlie Farley\u2019s bar.<\/p>\n

Since she died, Lauchlan said, rumours had circulated on Waiheke about McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u2019 death and what happened at her house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the general chat around. But you don\u2019t know, it\u2019s all rumours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another Waiheke resident who also knew McLaughlin-Middlemiss said island residents were struggling to make sense of her death.<\/p>\n

The resident, who asked not to be named, said McLaughlin-Middlemiss was a house painter with her own business who always seemed happy.<\/p>\n

She said McLaughlin-Middlemiss had two children with a previous partner. However, she had been in a new relationship with a woman and the couple had split before the death.<\/p>\n

The resident said McLaughlin-Middlemiss never appeared outwardly to be struggling and her death was a \u201creally big shock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AccordingAccording to police, Chantelle McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u00a0died in suspicious circumstances on Waiheke Island.<\/p>\n

She said it was McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u2019 children who people on the island were most worried about.<\/p>\n

The Herald also called at the house where McLaughlin-Middlemiss died. The occupant said they were new tenants in the property and didn\u2019t know her.<\/p>\n

They were aware someone had died at the property but only learned yesterday that police were treating it as suspicious.<\/p>\n

The Herald sought an update on the investigation from police, but they were unable to respond before the deadline. <\/p>\n

\"ChantelleChantelle McLaughlin-Middlemiss, 32, died at her \u014cnetangi property on June 2. Background photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n

In a statement yesterday, Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend confirmed the circumstances of McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u2019 death were now considered \u201csuspicious\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On June 2, emergency services were called to her property twice within a short time.<\/p>\n

Friend said emergency services attended McLaughlin-Middlemiss\u2019 home on Waiheke Rd about 2.42pm, after reports she \u201cmight have been deceased\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese concerns were allayed, and no immediate concerns required any intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

About an hour later, emergency services were called back.<\/p>\n

Friend said people had gone to the address after calls were made to the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt around 3.30pm, people known to the family located Chantelle unresponsive in bed. First aid was provided, and emergency services were called.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire and ambulance staff attended but sadly could not revive her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since then, police launched an investigation, Operation Gannon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigation is focusing on what took place [in] the hours before emergency services first attended the address finding Chantelle alive and well, to being found unresponsive around an hour later, and those persons Chantelle may have had contact with that day,\u201d Friend said.<\/p>\n

He urged people with information to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognise there may be mixed loyalties at play, and some people might feel challenged to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined on finding out what has led to Chantelle\u2019s death. We owe it to her wh\u0101nau and children to find these answers, so we ask you to speak with us,\u201d Friend said.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taxi driver Kevin Lauchlan was drinking that night at Charlie Farley\u2019s in \u014cnetangi and socialised with McLaughlin-Middlemiss, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17181,79564,9218,276716,84611,634,28447,6179,21659,5904,42,2514,195232,20829,306378,43,2551,1552,40,38,41,39,70252,102,28251],"class_list":["post-624137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bar","tag-beachfront","tag-before","tag-chantelle","tag-circumstances","tag-death","tag-describe","tag-died","tag-drinking","tag-final","tag-headlines","tag-island","tag-joking","tag-locals","tag-mclaughlinmiddlemiss","tag-news","tag-night","tag-suspicious","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waiheke","tag-with","tag-witnesses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624137","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=624137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}