KEY POINTS:
"Wait for me honey, I'll be down in a minute."
For Chris Benjamin, that would be the last time he would ever hear from his wife, Kalli, who died at Auckland's SkyCity Convention Centre a week ago following her office Christmas party.
The Blockhouse Bay woman died in
the early hours of Sunday morning from fatal head injuries after a five-metre fall.
A colleague tried to revive her but by the time emergency services arrived she was dead.
The 35-year-old mother of three was one of several hundred employees who had been eating, drinking and making merry at GE Money's annual "Kiwiana" Christmas party last Saturday night. For Kalli the evening was supposed to be a celebration of a productive year and a chance to let her hair down away from the pressures of the office.
Kalli, who colleagues say was always "the life of the party", had been drinking, dancing and was among the last to leave the function. Around 1am she received a call from her husband, Chris, telling her he was downstairs in the car waiting for her.
"Wait for me honey, I'll be down in a minute," she told him.
The next phone call he received was from police.
An hour-and-a-half later he was told his wife, and mother of his three children, was dead.
It is still unclear exactly what happened, but it appears she fell on to a flight of stairs after an unsuccessful attempt to slide down the railing.
"I still can't believe it. I'm gutted. She was everything to me, my whole world," Chris Benjamin told the Herald on Sunday shortly after burying his wife in Wairoa on Friday.
For Chris it's been the Christmas from hell. A fortnight ago he buried his mother, Ann. Now he has had to bury his wife, and try and come to terms with having to raise their three children - 15-year-old Paige and 10-year-old twins Kray and Lennox - on his own.
He says it's too early to blame anybody for his wife's tragic fall, but he does want answers. Most importantly, he says he wants to know whether SkyCity and GE Money met their obligations as responsible hosts, and took the necessary steps to ensure his wife's safety that night.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions. When people are drinking it should be a safe environment," he said.
GE Money and SkyCity both denied any culpability for Kalli's death, believing they had taken "all reasonable measures" on the night she fell to her death.
SkyCity Auckland General Manager David Christian told the Herald on Sunday her death was "a tragic incident" while GE Money said it "takes very seriously its duty of care for employees at all times".
A police spokesperson said it would investigate the death and report to the coroner in due course, but at this stage there was nothing to suggest there were any suspicious circumstances.
The amount of alcohol Kalli had consumed that evening would form part of the inquiry.
The Department of Labour is making preliminary inquiries into the incident to determine whether the death would be investigated as a workplace accident.
For GE Money staff there is still a sense of disbelief over what happened a week ago. GE Money employee Shane Mamoe couldn't bring himself to speak about the accident but in a death notice last week said: "Kalli. We danced and laughed. I never thought it would be our last."
Team leader Glynis Sandland said staff were obviously still in a state of shock over Kalli's death, especially as the mood at the Christmas party had been "great with lots of dancing and eating".
"The team is obviously devastated. I just can't imagine what Chris and his kids are going through," she said.
Mike Benjamin, Kalli's brother-in-law, told the Herald on Sunday Kalli enjoyed a good time, and her death so close to Christmas coupled with the death of his own mother, had been hugely upsetting for the family.
"For Chris this has been tough. Kalli had told him she was on her way down, but she never made it," he said.
"Chris understands this was an accident, but accidents can be prevented."
Kalli's death has also hit the Point Chevalier Rugby League Club hard. Coach Carl Gribble said she was always there on the sidelines cheering on Lennox and Kray who played in the under-11 side.
Chris Benjamin hoped that in time the pain of his wife's death would ease, but said "right now I just don't know what I'll do.
"She was such a beautiful person. The first time I met her, I knew she was the one. And now she's gone."
