How a random and deadly stabbing on a bus began with a search for methamphetamine has been revealed in court documents.
By Finn Blackwell of RNZ
Content warning: This story contains graphic violence, which some readers may find upsetting.
Bernice Louise Marychurch was killed in October 2024 after she was stabbed roughly 20 times on the Number 74 bus in Onehunga.
There were nine other people onboard the bus at the time.
The man charged with her murder, 38-year-old Kael Leona, handed himself in to police shortly after.
He previously pleaded not guilty on grounds of insanity but at a hearing at the High Court in Auckland on Wednesday, Leona entered guilty pleas to murder and strangulation.
He was expected to go to trial in a matter of weeks, but would now be sentenced in May.
Court documents released to RNZ detailed the brutal extent of the murder.
Leona and Marychurch met outside of a Woolworths in Onehunga on the morning of October 23, 2024. The pair did not know each other before then.
They boarded a bus to Panmure, in search of methamphetamine. When neither of them could find the drugs there, they and an associate went to Point England where they ultimately found someone to sell them a point bag of meth.
They consumed it soon after before travelling to Glen Innes.
Leona boarded a bus just after 2pm at the same time as Marychurch, who sat down in the left rear corner of the bus while Leona followed her, sitting at the right rear corner.
Court documents said Leona was agitated, "continually rocking backwards and forwards, from left to right," and tried at times to speak to Marychurch.
Marychurch was on her phone, with headphones on, for the majority of the bus ride and did not respond.
As they travelled along Church St in Onehunga, court documents said Leona became increasingly more agitated.
Just before 2.30pm, he drew a knife from his bag.
Leona moved across the seat to Marychurch and began stabbing. He pulled her to the right and "plunged the knife into her upper back."
She fell to the floor, where Leona stabbed her a number of times.
Her face was slashed, cutting her ear in half and causing a deep wound down the left side of her face to her lower jaw.
Passengers yelled at the bus driver to stop and open the doors.
"Some passengers, fearing for their safety, exited the bus," documents said.
Marychurch tried to defend herself by raising her knees to her body, before Leona pushed them aside and drove his knife into her stomach.
She also suffered wounds on her hands trying to block the knife strikes.
Marychurch was stabbed roughly 20 times.
She was taken to hospital where she died of her injuries.
A summary of facts said Leona twisted the knife around while stabbing.
As he left the bus stepping over Marychurch's "prone" body, Leona focused on another passenger, following him for roughly 100m before the passenger evaded him.
Leona then made his way to a family address, where a relative took him for a walk.
He went to the property of a family friend, knocking loudly on the door and demanding keys to their car.
When the family friend refused, Leona ripped the screen door off its frame and threw it. He grabbed the friend and said "I will kill you" before putting his right hand over their nose and mouth, impeding her breathing.
The family friend managed to break free, when other members of Leona's family arrived and told him to stop.
He was filmed on CCTV around Mount Wellington afterward.
The next day, Leona changed clothes at a store in the central city, leaving without paying, and caught a bus to North Shore where he handed himself in to police.
In a social media post following the murder, Marychurch was described as a loving, beautiful and devoted mother.
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