Coroner's verdict next week in Sydney

Nadine Haag
Nadine Haag
A coroner's finding into the death of a former Dunedin woman - whose family believe she was killed, rather than took her own life - should be revealed next week.

Nadine Ana Haag (33) was found dead in her Sydney apartment on December 3, 2009.

Police later concluded she took her own life, after a suicide note, pills and a razor were found at the scene.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the New South Wales coroner confirmed the finding would be released next Friday, following a five-day inquest in August last year.

Following that confirmation, Ms Haag's Dunedin-based family issued a statement saying, ''This has been a long and harrowing process with the fourth anniversary of Nadine's death in less than four months''.

''While we are eager for the coroner's finding to be released, we understand that his decision dictates the path of our family's future.''

The finding would determine if the case would be reinvestigated.

''We do not believe that Nadine committed suicide, so are hoping for a finding that would warrant further investigations.''

Family members in Dunedin hope to be in attendance when the coroner's finding is released.

Last year's inquest was the cumulation of the family's own three-year investigation following Ms Haag's death.

Evidence gathered by her siblings, who moved to Australia in the 1990s, included the discovery of a concealed message with the suicide note, saying ''He did it''.

This was found sealed in a police evidence bag and not opened until Ms Haag's sisters gave statements at the Castle Hill Police Station on December 24, 2009.

That same message was also found etched into a tile of Ms Haag's bathroom by the property's new tenants.

Police took no DNA, fingerprints or forensic evidence from the scene, as the death was being treated as a suicide.

Evidence uncovered by the family include knives missing from her apartment, a wound on her left wrist cut down to the bone, a toxicology report showing she took less than a therapeutic dose of pills, and the brown dress she had been wearing on the day of her death was never found.

Ms Haag, who was working as a dance instructor at the time of her death, had also been in an allegedly volatile relationship.

- hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz

 

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