Glendene homicide: Victims named as father and daughter Geoff and Eliza Trubuhovich

The shooter and two victims he killed in a West Auckland suburb last July can now be named for the first time.

Father and daughter Geoff and Eliza Trubuhovich were killed when Mikaere Puata-Chaney shot them on July 15, 2022, in Glendene.

Puata-Chaney appeared at the High Court in Auckland on Friday where he pleaded guilty to two charges of murder.

Stuff can also now reveal Puata-Chaney was also recently jailed for his involvement in the Sofitel shooting on April 15, 2021.

READ MORE:
* Gun violence is on the rise, but it’s not as bad as you might think
* Murder accused granted name suppression after two die in West Auckland shooting
* Two dead after shooting in West Auckland, man in custody

The Trubuhovich family filled the courtroom’s public gallery, and were seen crying when the guilty pleas were entered.

Puata-Chaney did a 360-turn in the dock, after entering each guilty plea.

A statement from the Trubuhovich family said Geoff and Eliza were tremendous, warmhearted and selfless human beings.

Eliza, 34, was a freelance photographer and DJ, and a former flight attendant with Qantas.

“We are still dreadfully shocked and deeply grieving over the killing of Geoff, Eliza and cute Rocca the dog. Their lives were so precious to us,” the family said.

They said Puata-Chaney’s admission to the murders was another step in their journey to recovery.

“It still causes us enormous sadness and pain to relive the event. We cannot comment any further at this stage as there is still sentencing to come.”

They asked for privacy while they grieved for Geoff and Eliza, “who we treasured”.

“We wish to sincerely thank everybody for the love and support shown to our family. We will always love them forever and continue to miss them every single moment.”

Close friend Stevee-Rose Theyers spent the morning of July 15 with Eliza, just hours before she was shot dead.

Theyers said they walked her dog in the city and spoke about their future plans and creative endeavours.

“[We] had such a beautiful morning together,” she said.

Theyers said her friend spoke about her goals to keep thriving as a creative, get into e-commerce, have a baby, have a house with a backyard for her dog Rocca – who also died in the shooting – and to keep working on her fitness.

The two had known each for about a year and became really close as they were both creatives, she said.

“We were working on a really exciting creative project together, so we’d meet every other day and walk our dogs, drink coffee and do pilates, so we quickly became really close organically.”

Eric Orr, who lives in the US, said Eliza was a great friend with great potential in photography.

The pair met when Orr came to New Zealand for the Auckland Arts Festival in 2009.

“She was one of the first people I met, and we just became friends.”

Trubuhovich came to New York in 2014 and visited him and his sons in the Bronx.

She would always ask him, “How are my little brothers” – referring to his sons – when she got in touch, he said.

“Eliza you left us way too soon and many, many people that you’ve touched with photography and your welcoming soul will miss you.”

Alex King, the daughter of mental health advocate Mike King, shared her memories of Eliza on her Instagram story.

She was a “beautiful angel” who was “taken too soon”, King wrote.

Eliza’s father, Geoff, was remembered by family members in online posts as an “awesome” dad with a big heart.

“It has been my absolute pleasure to have had the opportunity to call you my father-in-law,” one family member wrote.

A fundraising page set up for his widow, Eliza’s mother, has raised more than $84,000.

Puata-Chaney will be sentenced on July 27.