The teen's body was found at a South Auckland address on the afternoon Saturday, Sept 11, 2021. Video / Hayden Woodward
Warning: This article contains experiences of domestic violence
Weeks before 16-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a South Auckland train station — her naked body battered and showing signs of strangulation — she had called 111 to report friend Vikhil Krishna had choked and stolen her puppy.
“I’m just,I’m pretty scared,” she said in the July 2021 call, which was played for jurors today at Krishna’s murder trial in the High Court at Auckland.
“He choked it off, he like choked the dog while pulling it off, cos I was holding my dog and he choked the dog and like pulled him,” Oliver continued during the 1.36am call, which lasted 12 minutes. “He has flipped because the dog took an accident in the car and I couldn’t do anything about it cos we had nothing to pick it up with. I wanted to go home and he started yelling at me and, yeah, I took off.”
She said she ran to nearby houses in the Māngare Bridge area looking for help but no one was awake.
“Do you have concerns for the dog’s safety being with him?” the operator asked. “Do you think he’ll hurt the puppy again?”
“Um, yeah, I kind of do,” Oliver responded.
The teen would be found dead near the Homai train station in Manurewa two months later — on the afternoon of September 11, 2021, roughly 13 hours after prosecutors allege she was intentionally strangled by the 24-year-old defendant.
Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021. Photo / Supplied
Krishna was described by authorities as the teen’s on-again-off-again boyfriend. While a motive for the fatal attack isn’t known for sure, it appears jealousy might have come into play, Crown prosecutor Yasmin OIsen said during her opening statement as the trial began earlier this week.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, told jurors at the outset of the trial that his client was responsible for Oliver’s death, but he disagreed she was strangled with a mobile phone charging cable and said the death wasn’t intentional. His client was perhaps guilty of manslaughter but not murder, he said.
The defendant and the victim, Mansfield alleged, would often “steal moments together” to smoke methamphetamine and engage in sexual activity.
In the 111 call two months prior to her death, Oliver insisted to the operator that Krishna was a friend and not a current or former partner.
“He’s been drinking a lot and mad,” she told the operator, alleging that Krishna also took her bag, breaking the strap as he pull it away from her.
“Did he physically hurt you? Are you injured?” the operator asked.
“No, because I ran off,” the teen responded.
Oliver’s mother, Makareta Oliver testified after the 111 call was played.
She said the “puppy incident” was the first time she had heard of Krishna.
The six-week-old dog, named Shadow, had been given to the mother by her niece, but it soon ended up spending every night sleeping in Trinity Oliver’s bed, she said.
Then that afternoon, Makareta Oliver said she received a text from her daughter: “Be home tonight. Sorry, shit happened.”
Police would knock on her door two days later and ask her to identify her daughter’s body.
Vikhil Krishna appears in the Auckland High Court, accused of having murdered 16-year-old Trinity Oliver in September 2021. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Prosecutors also today replayed for jurors a 111 call that Krishna placed at 4.30am on the morning Oliver was killed. It was initially played during their opening statement on Wednesday.
In the call, Krishna said he wanted to report an attack in which he was the victim.
“I just got attacked by some other people,” he said.
“I somehow escaped the situation, but I’m not sure what happens with the other person.”
A woman tried to grab the keys from his ignition and said his car belonged to her now, he told the operator.
“There was one person in the vehicle but there were other people around,” he claimed.
Two officers went to Krishna’s Papatoetoe home shortly after the call to get more information. At the time, the teen’s body had not been discovered.
“He was very vague with versions of events,” Constable Mikail Hamzah recalled today while in the witness box.
“He said he couldn’t remember any specific details of the scuffle.”
He described Krishna as seeming “really sketchy” as they spoke, constantly looking around and unable to pay attention. When asked specific questions, he would take long pauses before answering, the constable said.
The man also seemed very focused on showing him what he said were scratches or cuts to his left arm suffered during the alleged attack, he said. But neither Hamzah nor Constable Lucas King-Turner, who also responded to the property, could see any injuries.
Krishna said he had just met his attacker that night at a party and had known her by the name “Toy”, the officer recalled.
Krishna offered to give her a ride home but he didn’t know where he was taking her, he is alleged to have said. He also couldn’t remember details such as how she ended up outside his car after the alleged attack.
“So you’ve picked up an unknown person from your girlfriend’s, and you’ve taken her to an unknown place where she’s attacked you?” the officer recalled summarising to Krishna, who he recalled nodding in agreement.
“I asked him why he couldn’t remember anything else and he just didn’t answer. He gave me a blank look like he was trying to make up the answer.”
The constables said they left after about 25 minutes, offering Krishna advice about not giving rides to strangers.
