The family of a 2-year-old whose death has sparked a homicide investigation kept to themselves and seemed "decent enough people", say shocked neighbours on the usually quiet Kaitaia cul de sac.
Police descended on Miro Place on Saturday after the death in Auckland's Starship Hospital that morning of a 2-year-old girl. She had been taken to Kaitaia Hospital at 4.30am with serious injuries.
Yesterday a 34-year-old woman appeared in Auckland District Court in relation to the toddler's death. She was charged with assault, granted continued name suppression and remanded to reappear on August 31.
Northland police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said 30 staff were still working on the case, including four ESR forensic specialists from Auckland and CIB officers from Whangarei and Kaitaia.
She expected the scene examination to be wrapped up and the investigation scaled back today.
Preliminary results from the child's post mortem were completed late yesterday but police were keeping tight-lipped on the findings because the case was now before the courts.
Nor would police comment on the charged woman's relationship to the toddler, the type of injuries or the role of the playground near Kaitaia's information centre, which was also cordoned off on Sunday.
Police would only consider whether more charges would be laid once the scene examination and post mortem were complete, Mrs Kennett said.
Neighbours had been interviewed and the family had co-operated fully.
"They have been quite happy to talk to police, they've been good."
Police cars were coming and going all day yesterday in usually sleepy Miro Place, a few blocks from where a tornado battered the town two months ago.
A section of road was blocked off by police cars and tape, and a tent had been erected on the driveway.
Retirees and young families living on the tidy cul de sac described it as a good neighbourhood.
The family of the 2-year-old had moved into the rental home at the centre of the investigation earlier this year.
"They were very quiet. You hardly knew they were there," one neighbour said.
Another neighbour said he came home on Saturday to see cordons going up and "a whole heap of police cars".
"We were shocked. You see this sort of thing on telly, not in your back yard."
His partner said they "seemed decent enough people ... it's tragic".
Another neighbour said the family, who replaced noisy tenants, sometimes had visitors but never parties.
"We didn't know them. They kept to themselves."
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