10.45am
A text message plea for help from a woman allegedly abducted with her children, after a man was killed in Christchurch yesterday, launched a nine-hour police operation to save the family.
Christchurch Detective Inspector Malcolm Johnston said the woman, 32, and her children were traumatised but unhurt after a dramatic police
rescue late yesterday afternoon. A 38-year-old Christchurch truck driver had been arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder.
The police armed offenders squad forced the car the man had been driving off the road.
Mr Johnston said while two police officers received minor injuries and three police cars were damaged the family were never at risk.
"The man was quickly subdued and arrested and taken into custody... the vehicle wasn't crashed -- it was strategically taken off the road," Mr Johnston told National Radio.
The Armed Offenders Squad made the decision to force the car to stop off Marshlands Road.
Mr Johnston also revealed the lengthy chase followed a text appeal for help from the woman after which police discovered the body of Darryn Raymond McRobert, 36, understood to be her partner at a Gilberthorpes Road, Hei Hei, property.
"When we visited the scene it was quite a chilling scene and from there we have very grave concerns for the woman and her children.
"It was a very, very tense and stressful nine hour ordeal for not just our victim and the family but also for the police and everyone concerned. It really was a life and death situation."
Mr Johnston would today not be drawn on the relationship between the woman and her alleged kidnapper.
He said she and the four children -- two primary school-aged children and four-month-old twins -- were "very, very traumatised, shaken up but physically okay".
A post-mortem examination was yet to be done on Mr McRobert and Mr Johnston declined to say how he appeared to have been killed.
Up to 60 police officers from Christchurch and Timaru were part of the search for the man and family last night as they moved between addresses. A helicopter was used to guide police officers on the ground.
Police were interviewing several people today as their inquiry continued.
Meanwhile, the family's neighbours last night said a man, woman and four children moved into the Housing Corporation house last October.
Neighbours said there had been a lot of noise and loud voices coming from the house on Tuesday night, but this was not unusual because the couple often had arguments.
The latest homicide was the third in five days in Christchurch, straining police resources.
Dennis Stephen, 67, was killed at his Spreydon home on Saturday. A neighbour, Michael Earl Young, is in custody charged with his murder and assault.
On Sunday, the body of Ordette Lloyd-Rangiuia was found at her Spreydon home. Her partner, Stephen King, is being sought, but police would not be drawn on whether he was a suspect.
Canterbury police district crime manager Detective Inspector Paul Kench said the workload had required "re-jigging" as detectives were moved about the city.
More than 45 police investigators were tied up with the three cases and two other homicides in rural Canterbury last month.
This was a "significant" percentage of those working in the district, Mr Kench said.
- NZPA
10.45am
A text message plea for help from a woman allegedly abducted with her children, after a man was killed in Christchurch yesterday, launched a nine-hour police operation to save the family.
Christchurch Detective Inspector Malcolm Johnston said the woman, 32, and her children were traumatised but unhurt after a dramatic police
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