North Shore double-murder accused named; allegedly attacked parents, brother

News
Crime

Author: Craig Kapitan,
Publish Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2026, 10:42am

A man charged last month with double murder and attempted murder of a third person on Auckland’s North Shore can now be identified as Marc Anthony Govinden.

The alleged victims were his parents and his brother.

The 41-year-old declined to seek ongoing name suppression today during his first appearance in the High Court at Auckland.

During the brief hearing, Justice Mathew Downs set a trial date for next August and ordered mental health assessments. In the meantime, Govinden is being held at a secure psychiatric facility rather than jail.

Police initially responded to reports of a stabbing at a Birkdale address on the night of July 28. There, they found the defendant’s brother, who was reported as suffering moderate injuries. The defendant was also still there and was arrested.

After talking to Govinden, police conducted a welfare check at his parents’ house 5km away in Glenfield.

There they found Raman and Rooksana Govinden dead. Both were in their late 70s.

“This is an awful set of events,” Acting Detective Inspector Megan Goldie said at the time. “I know this will leave many in our community unsettled, but what I can say at this early stage of the investigation is that the offender and victims are all known to each other.”

Marc Govinden’s uncle, who lives in South Africa, said the family loved New Zealand for its safety.

Marc Anthony Govinden has been charged with murdering his parents and attempting to murder his brother at their North Shore homes. Photo / Michael Craig

He described his brother, Raman Govinden, as “a very private person” who wasn’t keen to share any troubling family matters when they’d talk on the phone.

“My brother was a true gentleman,” he said. “He loved his family. They were his priority.”

Raman Govinden has gone to medical school and “had high standards that he kept himself to”, the brother added.

“He was resilient and a fighter. It’s very tragic.”

He described the defendant’s mother as a “loving and caring woman” who had battled cancer earlier in life – resulting in a large age gap in her two sons. He recalled her being worried about safety when the couple visited him in South Africa a little over a decade ago.

Rooksana Govinden was found dead inside her Glenfield, Auckland home in July 2026 alongside her husband, Raman Govinden. Their son, Marc Govinden, has been charged with murder.

It was quite the opposite in New Zealand, he recalled Rooksana Govinden telling him.

“She told me she could leave her house unlocked and just go to the beach,” she recalled.

The defendant’s case is set to be called again at another brief hearing in October.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.