Top NZ singer dies in mother’s arms
Singer Alicia Kirkpatrick died in the arms of her mother on August 28 after suffering an asthma attack.
Michelle Brown said Alicia and her three daughters Maia, 11, Jaezahn, 9, and 16-monthold Coco had come to her house in Te Karaka, about 30km northwest of Gisborne.
‘‘It just happened so fast. We had dinner. I sat down to have a talk. She got up and said: Mum, we’ve got to go. I knew her asthma had come on just like that. So we left. Two minutes down the road I was doing CPR on her in the car. Her three girls were in the car,’’ Brown said.
She said an inhaler proved ineffective and Alicia ‘‘passed away in my arms’’.
Alicia’s father David said she had suffered from asthma from a young age.
She grew up performing in multiple music competitions, and became increasingly involved in the local musical acts, shows and festivals around the country. She recorded her first album in 1999.
She became the lead singer of Kiwi reggae band Foundation, and played alongside some of the country’s biggest reggae acts over the years. A devastated husband says he has no idea how his wife died at their Christchurch apartment.
Emergency services arrived at the Selwyn St home about 9.10am on Monday to find Tina Sharma, 28, dead in a hallway, with her husband trying to resuscitate her.
Police were treating Sharma’s death as ‘‘unexplained’’, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Cottam said.
An autopsy was carried out but the cause of death was ‘‘still undetermined’’ and police were waiting on other medical results, Cottam said.
Sharma’s husband, who declined to be named, told Stuff on Thursday he did not know what caused his ‘‘amazing’’ wife’s death.
He arrived home from work about 11pm on Sunday and helped his wife cook. He then listened to music while drinking beer as his wife lay on the couch. His wife eventually fell asleep.
He woke about 4am or 5am and tried to wake his wife up, but had no luck.
‘‘She was a deep sleeper, I didn’t want to interrupt her.’’ He tried again at 8.45am. ‘‘I thought she was just playing a game, she didn’t want to get up.’’
He decided to carry her down the stairs.
‘‘I just fumbled on the last couple of steps and she fell on the hallway.
‘‘Then I looked at her face and her lips had gone blueish [and] her nails were blue.’’
The couple, who have been together for two years, married in January this year.
Neighbours said they heard the couple argue for several hours on Monday morning but the husband said that was not true. He believed it was music that the neighbours heard.