Double murder victim not transsexual

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 21st July 2008

Mounting concerns that one of the victims of Saturday morning's double killing in a downtown Auckland apartment might have been a transsexual appear to have been ruled out by information released this afternoon by the police.
Initial media reports stated that neighbours in the Vogel Lane apartment block were concerned for the occupants of the apartment where two bodies were found. The neighbours reportedly said that those occupants were the building manager and his girlfriend. A number of readers alerted GayNZ.com to subsequent reports in which police said one victim was male but were not initially able to clarify the sex of the other victim. Speculation grew further when it was announced last evening that both the victims were in fact men.

However, GayNZ.com was advised early this morning that fears that a transsexual had been killed were unfounded, and a police investigator this afternoon clarified that the reason for delayed identification of the sex of the second victim was due to the position of the body in the apartment. It was further stated that although both bodies had received multiple stab wounds, these injuries were not the reason for the delayed identification.

Police have yet to name the victims or clarify why they were found in an apartment apparently occupied by the building manager who does not appear to have been one of the deceased. Both victims will not be publicly named until their families overseas have been informed.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi immigrant, Baseem Ridha Kadhim Abbad Almery, 30, has been charged in connection with the deaths.