Police have said the accused man and the victims had been living together at the Hastings house, to which emergency services were called about 6am on Sunday.
One child is understood to have died at the scene. The other child and her mother died in hospital. They had stab wounds.
A statement from the victims’ family on Wednesday, issued through the police, said they were heartbroken, devastated and struggling to come to terms with the “senseless violence that has taken three beautiful lives far too soon”.
The man, represented by a duty lawyer, sat in a bed in the intensive care unit of Wellington Hospital when he appeared via AVL before Judge Bridget Mackintosh this afternoon.
Judge Mackintosh remanded the man to a secure forensic unit for psychiatric evaluation.
She ordered two reports be completed – one into whether the man would be fit to plead to the charges, and the other on his sanity.
The man is due to appear next in the High Court at Napier, again via AVL, on May 8.
Judge Mackintosh suppressed the man’s name until then. The identities of the man, the woman and children had already been suppressed by a coroner.
The family statement issued earlier said they were “deeply loved and will be missed beyond words”.
“At this incredibly difficult time, we ask for privacy as we grieve together and support one another.
“We would also like to thank the emergency services, investigators, and the wider community for their care, compassion, and support during this unimaginable time.”
Oranga Tamariki told Hawke’s Bay Today that it had no prior involvement with the family.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.
