By ALISON HORWOOD, PATRICK GOWER AND MONIQUE DEVEREUX
A 7-year-old girl and her mother were discovered murdered in their Palmerston North home yesterday.
The bodies of Christine Marie Lundy, aged 31, and her only child, Amber Grace Lundy, were found in the family home in the suburb of Kelvin Grove at 9.30 am.
Police launched a homicide inquiry - the fourth in New Zealand in the past three days.
At least 160 police in Auckland, Taumarunui, Palmerston North and Christchurch are now working on homicide investigations.
In the other murder investigations begun this week:
* Police are refusing to say how a Taumarunui woman died in her home on Tuesday or who found her body.
* Auckland police continue to hunt for the killer of Mangere liquor store owner Shiu Prasad, but have ruled out any link with a second stabbing yesterday a few streets away.
* More than 70 Christchurch police worked on a homicide inquiry after the body of salesman Robert Peter Harman, aged 21, was found in the Port Hills on Monday. Police said his head had been bashed with a blunt instrument.
Last night they charged three Christchurch men with murder.
New Zealand has had 42 murders this year, compared with 30 at the same time last year.
The national murder rate averages 50 a year - about one a week.
The Palmerston North murders were discovered when Mrs Lundy's brother visited their home.
It is not known whether the mother and daughter were dead or fatally injured, but the man phoned the ambulance service, which alerted the police.
The 34-year-old father and husband of the dead woman, Mark Edward Lundy, also known as Chuck, was with relatives last night.
It is understood Mr Lundy was in Wellington overnight on business, the evening before his wife and daughter were discovered.
A source said police phoned him as he was driving from Wellington to Palmerston North yesterday morning.
Mr Lundy is a sales distributor for the kitchen sink company Regienox. He is often away on business, but also worked from home.
Yesterday playground equipment, including a slide and a swing, sat behind a police cordon on the front lawn of the tidy weatherboard home where the Lundys lived for the past 10 years.
Shocked neighbours described the family as a "lovely, and normal happy family."
Mr Lundy was involved in Scouts, and Mrs Lundy was in the Girl Guides.
Dave Gaynor, area commissioner for the New Zealand Scouts Rangitane area, who knew the couple for six years, said: "You couldn't hope to meet a nicer pair.
"The family unit was paramount to both of them.
"It's amazing that this can happen to an ordinary, happy family in an ordinary home in New Zealand.
"We just can't believe it."
Harold Bailey, principal of the Roslyn School where Amber attended, said the staff had been shocked when police informed them of the murders yesterday.
"Some of the pupils were very close friends of Amber's, because they have gone to kindergarten together."
Amber's teacher was distraught, he said, and another teacher at the school had gone home after hearing the news because she was a close friend of Mrs Lundy.
He described the little girl as "a really lovely and very able kid."
Although she lived only a few blocks from the school, her mother or father would pick her up every day, he said.
Detective Ross Grantham, of Palmerston North, said a detailed examination of the outside of the house was conducted yesterday.
An inside scene examination would take place today.
Taumarunui police are today expected to name a woman who was found dead in her rented New Rd home on Tuesday, after receiving the results of a post-mortem examination conducted in Hamilton yesterday.
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