Police question teen in Kaitaia homicide 

Source: ONE News

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A police investigation is in full swing after a 70-year-old woman was brutally killed in her Kaitaia home.

Neighbours discovered the body of Barbara Julian on Wednesday night and a 17-year-old, who has been arrested on an unrelated matter, is considered a person of interest in the homicide investigation.

The alarm was raised by Julian's friends who were surprised she had not turned up for their weekly neighbourhood drinks and more than 30 officers are now trying to establish how the retired woman was murdered in her own home.

"She was just a quiet old lady. Now and again she'd bring a few veggies over and say hello to the kids," says neighbour Wayne Mudgway.

"It is a tragic event that neighbours have found that their 70-year-old neighbour has been brutally killed in her home," says Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus.

Police won't say how Julian was murdered but confirm they have arrested a Kaitaia teenager for trespassing on a property just metres away from Julian's home.

Neighbours say they saw a man acting suspiciously earlier in the day and police says they received a call from a resident of the same street about a suspicious person on his property.

"A heavily built Maori boy in a bathrobe with a towel walking around the streets," says Mudgway.

Police say they are keeping an open mind about their investigation but are questioning the teenager in relation to Julian's murder.

"It's gonna make a lot of the older people feel unsafe around here," says Mudgway.

Police are now anxious for anyone with any information about the crime to contact them.