The woman was walking from work to her home on Cheyenne Street in Sockburn when she was attacked with a knife by a 37-year-old man.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 4:20 p.m. and she died of her injuries shortly afterwards.
Police have not yet released the victim’s name, but said she was in her 50s with a partner and children.
Chief Inspector John Price said the alleged perpetrator did not know her.
“This was just a horrific, traumatic and indiscriminate attack on an innocent person who was just on his way home from work,” he said.
The attacker is known to police and faces a Christchurch court today on charges of murder.
Dee Ram lives across the street from the stage and is shocked that something could be happening near her 17-year-old home.
“Such a precious life has been taken away, it’s very sad and I’m very angry with the person who did that. He had no right to do that.”
She has lived there with her husband and children since they emigrated from India – but now feels so unsafe that she might leave the neighborhood.
“I don’t think it’s even safe for me or my husband or my kids or anyone to go for a walk. I used to go for a walk to the dairy, and now I have to think three times before taking any action.”
A married couple, who declined to be named, live two doors down from the scene of the stabbing and heard no screams on Saturday.
It took three police cars and two ambulances to realize that something had happened.
“It wasn’t until after the police came that we really knew what was going on, so we were just in and didn’t hear anything, which was quite strange.”
“We didn’t hear anyone screaming.”
They are afraid to let their children out of the house and plan to take them to school from now on.
Anne van Slooten (92) lives next door, but does not feel threatened by the attack.
“That’s just an isolated case, someone must have gone mad,” she said.
Ram said the neighborhood is close-knit and supportive — most people have lived there for decades and helped each other through the aftermath of the earthquakes 11 years ago.
She said they would come together to process the horrific event, but for now she just wants the barriers lifted so she can support the victim’s whānau.
“We can’t go to their house because of all the barricades and police to see how they are doing, because according to our Indian custom, if something like that happened, we would go feed.”
‘We can’t do that. We can’t do anything like that.’
Most of Cheyenne Street was cordoned off Saturday after the attack and surrounding houses remained in place on Sunday while a local investigation took place.
Sut Price said the investigation would continue in the coming days.