00:00For the past couple of days we've been talking to locals in Tennant Creek about the Aboriginal woman who passed away inside the police watch house just behind me.
00:11You might be able to see people have been laying flowers to remember her and that gives you a sense of how well loved she was in the community.
00:18We can't tell you who she is just yet because we understand her family is still finding out about what happened.
00:25But what we can tell you is that she was a long term Tennant Creek community member and a much loved mum.
00:31She was taken into custody on Christmas Day for aggravated assault and it was almost two days later that police believed she suffered a medical episode inside her cell.
00:40It wasn't until 30 minutes later though when they discovered her unresponsive during a routine cell check.
00:47Now she was taken to hospital, police attempted CPR but she died a short time later.
00:52What we've learned while being here is that multiple sources have told us she had rheumatic heart disease which is a potentially deadly heart condition.
01:01But from what police have told us that wasn't disclosed to them when she was taken into custody and given a health assessment.
01:08In the Tennant Creek watch house compared to other major watch houses in the territory such as Darwin and Alice Springs.
01:15There are no nursing staff rostered on to be able to check on people's medical history when they're taken into custody.
01:22Now locals in Tennant Creek want to know why that's the case and they also want to know the circumstances that led up to her arrest.
01:30Police are doing a post-mortem today to try and determine her exact cause of death and confirm whether it was indeed a medical episode that she suffered in police custody.
01:40What we can tell you is that this woman was the 34th Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander person to die in custody during 2025.
01:49In what was the most fatal year for Aboriginal people in custody since 1979.
01:56like 1,500 people in seet some cases ...
01:58I was really upset about her.
02:00You know I waited until the community of Scandinavian immigrants in Stirling.
02:01It's 255 at 847Z.
02:02It was 217 at 57.
02:04Monop Musil應y Kongavam kerna and Misty metedy.
02:05We have the CRI.
02:06For him hello there.
02:07To be honest let out there was the entire neighborhoods sitting here.
02:08..
