Police are treating the death of a toddler found unresponsive in her family's washing machine in Christchurch as unexplained.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
They were called to the girl's home on Friday night.
A minute released by deputy chief coroner Anna Tutton said the girl was at home with her father and siblings when the father realised he hadn't seen her for about 10 minutes.
He searched for her girl and found her in the washing machine.
Attempts were made to resuscitate the girl but she died in hospital the following day.
A post mortem has been conducted and the coroner has started an inquiry.
The coroner's minute said the police investigation was in its early stages and would work to determine if the death was suspicious or accidental.
The officer in charge of the case, Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Worner, advised the coroner the family did not want the toddler's name published.
Worner sought and was granted a non-publication order in respect to the child's name and any identifying factors.
He said many people still had vivid recollections of the Nia Glassie case that involved a clothes dryer and a washing line among other forms of abuse and publication of the girl's name would cause some members of the public to form an associated but false opinion in this case.
Three year-old Nia was killed in 2007, after a prolonged period of abuse. Brothers Michael and Wiremu Curtis were jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17-and-a-half years for her murder. Her mother Lisa Kuka was sentenced to nine years in jail in 2009 for manslaughter for failing to protect the child.
