Claire and Ben Anderson. Photo: Supplied
The British couple found dead in suspected murder-suicide at a property in the Wellington suburb of Roseneath on Monday night were Ben and Claire Anderson, RNZ understands.
A concerned family member asked officers to do a welfare check on the occupants of the Palliser Road property about 10.25pm on Monday.
Police forced their way in and found two people dead.
Post mortems were completed on Wednesday and the case will be referred to the coroner, as police are not searching for anyone else in relation to the deaths.
Police have confirmed the deaths are being treated as a murder-suicide, and are providing support to the family.
Ben and Claire Anderson had been living with their landlord at the property. Their neighbour Emma Prestidge described them as lovely people, and dream neighbours.
Ben had been living and working in New Zealand, while Claire had been moving between New Zealand and the UK, before settling in Wellington in December, Prestidge said.
He worked in science, she had been a teacher, and they had adult children in New Zealand. They had been considering moving to Otago to be closer to them, she said.
Prestidge was unsure if Claire had found work in New Zealand yet.
Ben Anderson's LinkedIn profile said he had been working at the Building Research Association (BRANZ) as a principal research scientist since January 2024. BRANZ told RNZ it was directing all enquiries to police.
Prior to his time at BRANZ, Ben Anderson had been working at the University of Southampton, and the University of Otago which he left in 2019.
He was an EU-funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow, researching at Otago between 2017 and 2019, and then Southampton between 2019 and 2020, looking at local electricity demand profiles.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Otago University declined to comment, and RNZ has contacted the University of Southampton.
Wellington District Commander Corrie Parnell would not confirm the people who died were the Andersons.
Police would not release their names until they had the authority of the coroner, he said.
Parnell understood they were British, and had family in New Zealand, who police had been in touch with.
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