Power shut-off cited in death
A 44-year-old woman who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after an energy company cut the power to her home because of a $122 unpaid bill, her family said.
New Zealand police launched an investigation of Folole Muliaga’s death, which occurred within two hours of state-owned company Mercury Energy cutting power to her house Tuesday.
Mercury Energy’s general manager, James Moulder, said the company was devastated and was conducting an investigation.
Muliaga, a schoolteacher with four children ages 5 to 20, had been off work since February with an illness, said Brenden Sheehan, a relative who provided a copy of the bill.
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