The son of a woman who was allegedly murdered in Auckland last week says his mother was a loving, hardworking woman who deserves a beautiful send-off despite the COVID-19 restrictions.
Tania Hadley was found on May Rd, in Mt Roskill, on Friday morning with stab and burn wounds.
Despite efforts to save her, she passed away shortly after emergency services arrived.
Tania's son Deon Johnson-Hadley says the family is devastated.
"Going forward it's going to be very tough for her family and her friends," he told Newshub. "The thing is just taking every day as it comes. It's going to be a long recovery for us."
Johnson-Hadley said the family is now raising money to give his mother the send-off she deserves.
"She deserves for her send-off just a lot of gratitude and a lot of love and the respect that she should get for what she has done and achieved in her lifetime, and what she's done for everybody.
"She was loving, she was hardworking, she was always supportive of anybody no matter who you were. She always put everybody else first before herself and she would do anything for anybody."
So far, almost $1500 has been raised, and Johnson-Hadley says he has been blown away by the support that has come pouring in.
"We've been very, very overwhelmed with the response. My mother was a very, very private person and I'm just overwhelmed with the response from the whole of New Zealand - from people we know that we haven't heard from in years, people I didn't know even existed, total strangers."
A 29-year-old man appeared in court via video link on Saturday charged with murder. He entered no plea and has been granted name suppression.
