CITY HOMICIDE - Slain teen lay dead 12 hours

The body of a Whangarei teenage girl who was brutally killed lay in an Otangarei house for up to 12 hours before anybody was able to call police.
Whangarei police are now hunting a patched Black Power member they believe to be dangerous and armed with a firearm. Nathan Fenton, 31, is wanted in connection with the killing of 17-year-old Mairina Dunn, in Holmes Ave, Otangarei.
Police believe Mairina died after a "significant violent event" in the early hours of Sunday morning, but despite a number of people having been at the 1950s weatherboard house around that time, nobody was "in a position" to phone police until after midday.
By the time the police armed offenders squad arrived Mr Fenton, who had been in a brief relationship with Mairina, had already gone.
Yesterday armed officers guarded the gate to the house as forensic scientists and detectives examined the scene inside and uniformed police went door to door interviewing neighbours.
Emotions ran high among a group of about 50 family and friends gathered on the street waiting for Mairina's body to be removed.
"She's my baby girl. Where's my baby?" shouted a woman as she wept over the front of a hearse before Mairina's body was taken from the house, about 1pm.
A close family friend said Mairina had recently returned from an army camp, but any hope that her army experience would help keep her out of trouble soon dissolved when they learned who she'd got together with.
"She hung around with the wrong fella this time," one person said.
Mairina's auntie, Mellissa Diamond, said Mairina's mother was "just so devastated" by her death, and desperate for her body to be returned to whanau, something police hoped would happen today.
"She shouldn't have died ... She was a good girl," Ms Diamond said.
Whangarei police Detective Senior Sergeant Marty Ruth said Mr Fenton is Maori, 178cm tall and of medium to solid build. He had been around Whangarei for some time, and had a large extended family in Northland, Silverdale and Auckland, to whom police were speaking.
"He is a member of the Black Power gang and is extensively tattooed on his lower arms. Nathan Fenton is armed and dangerous and is not to be approached by the public. He is to be considered dangerous at all times."
Mr Ruth would only say a weapon was used against Mairina. He would not say what that weapon was, nor the nature of her injuries. He expected to know more once results from a post mortem due to be carried out today become available.
Mr Ruth said Mr Fenton and Mairina, who was from a large Whangarei family, and three other women, had been living at the Holmes Ave house where Mairina's body was found.
"They were in a domestic relationship, a very brief domestic relationship."
He said Mr Fenton and Mairina had been together less than a month.
Saturday night before Mairina died there were a number of parties in the Holmes Ave area.
Late into the night and early Sunday morning several people were drinking at house where she died.
"There were a number of people who saw certain things."
But Mr Ruth said nobody was "in a position" to contact police until later in the day.
He believed Mr Fenton had left the house about midday Sunday.
The call to police was made around the same time.
"Because of the nature of the call, armed offenders squad entered the house late Sunday afternoon and found the girl there, deceased inside."
Nobody else was present.
"If someone knows where he is, give us a call and tell us," Mr Ruth said.
People who thought they'd heard shots near the house on Sunday evening had heard something unrelated to the incident, he said.
All morning yesterday young women - many Mairina's age - gathered outside the house to stay with her until her body was removed.
They spoke with sadness of their friend, who they said was a "quiet" girl, placed flowers in traffic cones that cordoned off the site.