Care talks for dead woman's six children

The family of the North Shore woman who was fatally stabbed on Monday have gathered to discuss care arrangements for her six children.

Cheryl Tuaine Pareanga, 33, was killed in an attack that started at her house in Bruce Rd, Glenfield, and ended inside her neighbour's home.

Ms Pareanga was home with her three-year-old at the time. Three other children, aged 5, 7 and 10, were at Glenfield Primary School and her teenage sons were at a nearby park.

Friends and neighbours described Ms Pareanga as a caring mother who would always put her children first.

She walked her children to school every morning and picked them up in the afternoon.

Ms Pareanga came from a large family of 13 brothers and sisters, some of them half-siblings.

One of her half-brothers was Joseph Thompson - the serial rapist jailed for at least 25 years in the 1990s after being charged with 46 counts of rape.

Shocked relatives yesterday gathered in south Auckland to discuss the care of her children.

A friend said the family would do a lot of talking before making any decisions about the children's future.

The murder has angered community organisations Ms Pareanga turned to for help during a violent relationship with the father of her four youngest children.

She had taken non-molestation, protection and trespass orders against her former partner.

Warren Coley, administrator at De Paul House in Northcote, said a number of community-based support agencies and Government agencies - including police and Child, Youth and Family - had been involved in helping Ms Pareanga.

De Paul House, which provides families with short-term emergency accommodation, had dealt with Ms Pareanga for six years, Mr Coley said.

"Obviously the news was very devastating. De Paul House has given her every service, every help during the years and for it to come to an end like this is tragic, to say the least. We're deeply disappointed and saddened by what's happened."

Mr Coley said Ms Pareanga was a caring woman who made "huge gains and progress in what she had achieved" since her first contact with De Paul House as a person who was homeless.

"You could almost say she was a role model for what can be done."

Mr Coley said he was not sure what childcare arrangements were being made by the family.

The acting national manager for Women's Refuge, Lesley Melrose, said breaches of protection orders happened time and time again.

Police were carrying out investigations at the scene yesterday.

A 33-year-old man will appear in the North Shore District Court today charged with murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.