Ngatai Lynette Manning (also known as Mellory Manning) was murdered in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 18 December 2008. Manning was picked up from Manchester Street and presumably taken to a property in Avonside and brutally killed by stabbing, strangling and assault with a metal pole. Her body was then dumped in the nearby Avon River and found the next morning by a kayaker. In March 2012 a 24-year-old man was arrested and charged with the murder and abduction of Manning. He was later convicted of her murder, however this conviction was overturned on appeal and the charge was later dismissed. Previously, the case's severity and longevity had led police to fear of a repeat killer, and a reward on information was issued. Following the arrest police acknowledged there were more people involved than the man in custody and the investigation would be ongoing. Background Manning had a difficult upbringing. Her father left the family when she and her siblings were young and they then had a unkind stepfather. At the age of 14, she left school after going into foster care because she was misbehaving, and became an intravenous drug user. She began working as a prostitute at 15. In 1999, she was sentenced to 18 months jail for stabbing a shop assistant with a blood-filled syringe during a robbery. She spent several periods in prison. Her elder sister Jasmine, who "ran in similar circles", entered witness protection and lost contact with Manning, then killed herself in July 2008. Manning gave up prostitution and joined a methadone treatment programme to get off opioids, as she feared she would die young like her sister. Manning inquired about going to a polytechnic to study art, she went to live with her mother, and she and her partner planned to have a child. However, Manning's poverty and unemployment made her unable to afford Christmas presents for her family, and she returned to street prostitution for "just one night". In the days or hours before her death, she took methadone, morphine, diazepam, possibly temazepam, and THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. Homicide On the evening of 18 December 2008 Manning hitchhiked from Riccarton suburb to central Christchurch. A client picked her up at 9:30 pm from her usual spot at the corner of Manchester and Peterborough Streets and dropped her back there. Manning then had another client which lasted until 10:20 pm. She was