Suspicious death of Rotorua trainee teacher

SEE UPDATE HERE: Death not suspicious

The sudden death of a Rotorua mother of six is being treated as suspicious by police.

Melani Mare, 34, was found dead at her Fordlands home on Tuesday morning but police say it is too early to say how she died.

The trainee teacher at Sunset Primary School had spent the day before she died celebrating the 7th birthday of her youngest child.

Her daughter, Jahna Mare, 11, found her in the lounge before leaving for school yesterday and was unable to wake her.

"I was going to say goodbye to my mum because I was going to school. I tried shaking her but she wouldn't wake up."

Jahna alerted her grandmother, Matoi Mare, who lives next door, because she knew something was wrong. Mrs Mare said her daughter was not breathing and she called an ambulance for help. "It happened so fast. It is hard to believe."

She said she did not know how her daughter died only that she had stopped breathing. Mrs Mare said it was hard to take in and just one day before the tragedy her daughter was happily celebrating the birthday.

When The Daily Post arrived yesterday about 10.30am, a hearse was parked in the driveway and about three police cars were parked outside.

The house was cordoned off with police tape.

Rotorua police Senior Sergeant Malcolm Collins said they had not found any obvious cause of death.

He said they were treating the death as suspicious until information from the post mortem returned from Auckland today.

"We are erring on the side of caution."

Mr Collins said they would likely leave a cordon up, around the Wrigley Rd home, until they received details about how Ms Mare died.

She had lived at the Wrigley Rd home with her partner and six children, aged between 7 and 16.

She also grew up in the area, attending Sunset Primary School as a child.

Sunset Primary School principal Niels Rasmussen said Ms Mare was training to be a teacher and was a board member at the school.

"She was an active member of the school and was a good person with a good heart. She did a lot of work for us and she will be sadly missed."

He said three of Ms Mare's children currently attended Sunset Primary and the school had talked and prayed with them.

A woman who lived in the area told The Daily Post that there had been a party on Monday night at the house next door to Ms Mare's.

Another nearby resident said at midnight on Monday he had heard fighting, shouting and bottles breaking in the area.