Police at the scene of an unexplained death in Riccarton, Christchurch. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon
An injured woman who died in Christchurch is not missing woman Elisabeth 'Lis' Nicholls, police say.
The woman was found with critical injuries in a Riccarton car park on Wednesday and police have now said her death is not being treated as suspicious.
Emergency services were called about 4.40pm. The woman died while being taken to hospital.
The woman in her 70s was found with critical injuries near a commercial block of units in Leslie Hills Drive in Riccarton late Wednesday afternoon.
Police were initially treating her death as unexplained but now say it's likely to have been the result of a medical event.
The woman's death would be referred to the coroner.
Police had earlier said a body had been found in the car park.
Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon
A scene guard was initially in place at the car park where she was found.
Police said speculation in the community that this may be related to missing woman Nicholls was not accurate.
Nicholls, 79, suffered from dementia and disappeared after walking out of the Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Riccarton on 4 June.
The last confirmed sighting of her was at the Chateau on the Park in Riccarton at 7.54pm the same day.
She had been admitted to the facility for respite care on the same day that she disappeared.
Searchers and police went door-to-door, reviewed CCTV footage and made extensive enquiries, but were unable to find her.
A week later they expressed concerns for her welfare and this week they intended using a drone to help with the search.
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People who worked near the Christchurch car park off Leslie Hills Drive, where the injured woman was found, said her death was a mystery.
Carina Crocker, who works at Hygiene Direct, said she saw emergency services converge on the car park late on Wednesday afternoon.
"I was just sitting here at my computer, saw an ambulance come in here, stuck my head out the door to have a look, saw someone was on the ground with a whole pile of people around her. That was it.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before."
Bex Malcolm of ServerWorks said emergency services arrived shortly before staff left for the day, and returned on Thursday morning.
"We have a little bit of footage and [police] asked to see some footage. We showed them some footage," she said.
"It's relatively safe around here. Police didn't indicate to me that it wasn't anything to worry about."
