Man charged with murder was victim’s boarder

Aman charged with murdering a carer inside her Christchurch homewas her boarder, who had previously described her as a ‘‘very good, caring, loving person’’. Name suppressionwas lifted for Elliot Ajay Prakash in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday. The 42-year-old is charged with the murder of Val Heaney on April 3. He has not entered a plea to the charge. It can nowbe reported that Prakashwas boarding with Heaney at the time of her death. Stuff approached him for comment in the days after the discovery of her body, and he described her as a ‘‘very good, caring, loving person’’. He confirmed he had been living with her at the time, but declined to comment further. ‘‘At the moment, we’re in the cloud as to what’s going on so I’d rather not say anything, we are not sure what’s going on so I’mnot gonna talk, sorry,’’ he said. Heaney’s deathwas initially treated as ‘‘unexplained’’. However, after an autopsy it was investigated as a homicide. Prakashwas remanded in custody to May 27.