Mt Victoria

Stuff reports:

Police have named a Wellington woman whose body was found on Mt Victoria but say it could take six weeks to determine how she died.

She was Sofia Helen Athanassiou, of Newtown.

The 39-year-old was found by a group of joggers about 11am on Monday off a running track near Alexandra Park, above Wellington Girls’ East College.

By coincidence I was walking with a friend on the same area of Mt Vic the previous (Sunday) morning.  And there was a (in hindsight) slightly surreal conversation as at one point the track splits and we went down the path which was very bushy and surrounded by trees. My walking companion said “Are you taking me down this way so you can …”. I interrupted and said “No I only dispose of bodies in swamps, not forests”. She exclaimed back “I was going to say have sex with me, not kill me. Why are you thinking of killing me”. My response was “I’m not, why are you thinking of having sex with me”. We both laughed and carried on.

So it was rather weird to then read barely 24 hours later someone had been found dead in close to the same location.

He said an autopsy completed late yesterday was inconclusive and police were awaiting the results of further laboratory tests which may help explain how or why Athanassiou died.

Those tests could take up to six weeks.

“While it will ultimately be for the Coroner to determine the cause of death, we are still treating Sofia’s death as ‘unexplained’ and a key focus of the police investigation is establishing how or why she died.”

Twelve investigators continued to work on the case.

Hopefully it was natural causes, not homicide. A tragedy for her family and friends either way, but worse if foul play is involved.