The Mongrel Mob emblem. Photo / Alan Gibson
The 33-year-old woman found dead at Mongrel Mob headquarters in Wellington came from "a well respected, good family" in Porirua, say police.
A 35-year-old man will appear in court today charged with the murder
of Bronwyn Whakaneke.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Oxnam refused to give details of
the incident, but it is understood the woman's partner is a Mongrel Mob member.
Her body was found in a Mongrel Mob headquarters early yesterday.
The body was discovered in Commerce Cres, Waitangirua, at 5am.
One News last night reported that she was found naked in a derelict bus on the property, and there was a suggestion she had been strangled.
A cordon remains outside the bus and a post-mortem examination is being carried out on the body.
"We're still at the early stages and there will be no further information given out," Mr Oxnam said.
He said the autopsy would take "quite a while" and no preliminary results were available.
A cousin of the victim, who didn't want to be named, told the Herald she had two daughters who were being looked after by her mother, whose house is a short walk from the gang headquarters.
She learned of the death after the woman's mother called a relative, hysterically trying to explain what had happened yesterday morning.
"It's a horrible shock. It's awful and just too hard to believe," she said.
She said the woman was a friend of hers at Waitangirua Intermediate.
She had been well-liked but had "gone wayward" over the past few years.
The Herald understands she and her partner were often at the Mongrel Mob's "pad".
A man from Maraeroa marae, which is on the same street as the gang headquarters, told the Herald the woman's mother had approached the marae to arrange her tangi.
He said the family were waiting for her body to be released.
He did not know when the tangi would begin.
- additional reporting: NZPA
