KEY POINTS:
Two people have appeared in court charged with murdering an 81-year-old Kaikohe man in his pensioner flat early yesterday.
Mid-Northland police found Norman James Lewis - described by neighbours as cheerful and always with a twinkle in his eye - following a call from a member of the
public.
Tracey Anne Lewis, 39, from Ngawha Springs, just east of Kaikohe, and Matiu Tane Kopa, 44, unemployed of Otaua, southwest of the town, made brief appearances in Kaikohe District Court today.
Police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett earlier said they knew each other and one had a family connection to the deceased, said police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett.
Police would not say whether a weapon was used in the attack.
Detective Inspector Mike Pannett, leading a team of 20 police working on the homicide inquiry, said the victim had been subjected to "a degree of aggravated violence".
The cause of death will not be known until a post-mortem examination is completed in Auckland today.
Matiu Kopa was found yesterday afternoon at an address in Horeke on the Hokianga Harbour. Tracey Lewis was stopped while driving in the Okaihau area.
The police Eagle helicopter from Auckland helped in the search for her.
Mr Pannett said last night that no one else was being sought in connection with the murder. "It was not a random attack. The people were all known to each other."
Mr Pannett said police would be "in a better position" today to comment on whether weapons were involved as scene inquiries continued at the man's pensioner unit.
Mr Lewis' near neighbours in the Tawanui Rd units, Richard Fuller and Maria Benjamin, described him as educated and said he always had a twinkle in his eye.
"He liked a drink and was very cheerful. We'd see him every day."
Mr Fuller said his neighbour took a light-hearted approach to things. "He was always joking."
Mrs Benjamin said they had heard banging sounds from the direction of Mr Lewis' unit around midnight or one o'clock yesterday morning.
She said the noise was also heard by other neighbours.
A caregiver for the victim's next-door neighbour said he was "a softly spoken, nice old man".
This is the second time in less than two months that tragedy has struck the elderly residents in the Tawanui Rd units, which belong to the Far North District Council.
Hazel Barlow died from smoke inhalation last month when a fire broke out in her unit after a cigarette ignited bedding.
Her unit is directly opposite the one in which the elderly man was slain.
"It's tragic losing one in a fire, another one dying [from natural causes] and now this," Mr Fuller said. "We're all so close here. We all try to look after each other."
Police want to hear from anyone who might be able to throw light on what happened in Mr Lewis' flat and why, and are keen to know the movements of a brown Mitsubishi Mirage car seen in the area.
- With NZPA
