KEY POINTS:
A teenage girl collapsed and died during an out-of-control party at a house that had just been filmed for the television programme Neighbours at War.
Police put the show's producers in touch with residents of the street after years of failed attempts to stop trouble at the Mt
Maunganui house.
A crew from Greenstone Pictures was filming for the reality programme, which profiles disputes between neighbours and tries to mediate, about three hours before 18-year-old Courtney Coppell's death.
Neighbours said the teenage residents of the house began doing burnouts in their cars when the crew arrived on Thursday, and appeared to be playing up to the cameras.
But police said the film crew was in no way to blame for the situation and had left as soon as it became clear the young people were texting others to organise a party.
Greenstone Pictures general manager Bryan Hall told the Weekend Herald the film would not be used.
Courtney Coppell had a congenital heart condition, and police say her death is not suspicious.
The Edgecumbe teenager was one of a large number of young people who came from out of town to attend the party.
About 50 youths were at the Korowai St property, and police were attacked when they arrived at 7.30pm after Courtney collapsed.
Five youths aged between 15 and 19 were arrested, and police said some partygoers were so drunk they did not realise anything had happened to Courtney.
Police said the house where the party was held was owned by Kim Dunnachie, who lives in Indonesia. Those arrested included his son, Roy Gibson, who was charged with assaulting police.
Mr Dunnachie had previously been contacted by police about problems at the house.
Neighbours said there had been trouble since the owner went overseas.
One neighbour, Anne Cook, said there were frequent parties at the house, and cars did tyre-smoking "donuts" in the street.
"It's just really intimidating, their behaviour. It just fills us with terror."
She said neighbours often called police, and last year a gatecrasher at one of the parties was stabbed.
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, returned home at 3pm on Thursday to find the youths doing burnouts while the film crew was working.
The woman said the teens had caused trouble for the five years she had lived there, but had not been so bad in recent times.
But they appeared to want to perform for the cameras that afternoon.
She said the group had grown by the time she went back out at 5.15pm, and when she arrived home later in the evening they had started a "great brawl" with police as ambulance workers tried in vain to revive Courtney.
The Weekend Herald received a hostile response from three young men at the house yesterday. They let their dog loose and repeatedly said, "F*** off".
A front window of the building was smashed and beer bottles and rubbish lay scattered across the property and spilling on to a neighbouring lawn.
Police said it was a "doss house" where young people came and went, and officers had been called there "heaps".
Senior Sergeant Tania Kura said police were powerless to evict the teenagers, but had tried to deal with the trouble they caused.
They had held neighbourhood meetings, involved the Tauranga City Council and noise control officials and, more recently, had approached Greenstone Pictures.
Ms Kura said police had hoped the Neighbours at War producers - who planned to use former All Black Norm Hewitt as a mediator - might have had a way of dealing with the teenagers.
Courtney is the third of five siblings to die suddenly. The other two collapsed and died when they were aged 13 and 16.
