As she sobbed over her daughter's inert body, her partner told her their baby had rolled off a bed. That is Melina Puhi's testimony to the jury which is trying Donovan Michael Duff on a charge alleging he murdered the couple's daughter Maija.
Duff, 42, has pleaded not guilty in the High Court at Rotorua to the charge of taking his nine-month-old daughter's life at Turangi on March 12, 2016.
Puhi admitted during her testimony on Tuesday that she and Duff regularly used methamphetamine, he on a daily basis. However, it did not appear to affect him and he was "normal".
Before the drug use admission, which was prompted by a question from Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon, Justice Mathew Downes cautioned Maija's mum she didn't have to answer it but she chose to, saying her own use was only about once a week.
The question about her drug use came after Gordon said traces of methamphetamine were found in the dead infant's urine.
Through tears and with an uncle close by to support her, Puhi revealed how after she'd seen her baby unresponsive in Duff's truck, her partner hugged her, saying Maija had rolled off the bed they'd been sharing. Because she was crying and had "spewed up" bottles of water, milk and Milo, he had taken her onto a couch with him.
He'd woken to find her not breathing or moving, then tried CPR on her before driving her to an aunt's.
Referring to events two days before Maija died, Puhi said she and Duff had argued and she'd taken Maija to an aunt's house. Although she hadn't stayed at the home she and Duff shared that night, she'd taken him fish and chips for dinner, leaving Maija with him because he'd asked her to.
Apart from a little scratch on her nose, which she thought she'd received while playing with cousins, Maija was well and unscathed.
Puhi spent the following day and that next night with a friend and had no concerns about Maija being with her father.
Early the next morning she discovered missed calls from Duff and her aunt. Unable to contact him, she'd caller her aunt who said Duff had been around and it was about their baby.
Puhi found him at his sister's, where he hugged her and said he'd lost Maija.
"I was crying, asking where Maija was, he said 'in the truck', she was on the front seat, I was hugging her when ambulance officers came.
Opening her testimony, Puhi said Maija and her father got on "like a house on fire".
Questioned by Duff's lawyer Moana Dorset, she agreed Maija was very well loved and Duff had been unable to figure out how she died.
The trial is continuing.
