Locals can only watch and wait as Rotorua police investigate a triple homicide after a woman and two children died last night.
Emergency services arrived to find the children's bodies in a Glenholme property, and the woman died soon after.
A man's appeared in the District Court charged with assault in a family relationship - to reappear next month.
Rotorua Daily Post reporter Annabel Reid says neighbours who saw police arrive have been looking on today.
"They were discussing it on the street with one another and watching as police carried out their duties - they had tape measures and markers and drones."
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