Woman charged with killing 3 young girls in New Zealand

By NICK PERRY
Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A 40-year-old woman has been charged with killing three young girls in a crime that has shocked New Zealand. Police did not immediately identify the woman but the Stuff news agency said she was the girls’ mother, Lauren Dickason, a doctor who had just moved to New Zealand from South Africa along with her daughters and husband Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon. Emergency services say they found a woman at the home in the South Island town of Timaru who had been hospitalized in stable condition. Police say the woman killed twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla and their 6-year-old sister Liane. The Stuff report says Graham Dickason returned home just before 10 p.m. Thursday and found the bodies of his daughters.