In the 1980s, Helena Wakefield was enjoying a great social life in Sydney with a big circle of friends who enjoyed going to art galleries and classical concerts.

She was known for being softly spoken, spiritual and slightly mysterious, according to one friend who got to know her after the pair were bridesmaids at a wedding together.

But when she returned to live in her native New Zealand telling friends she was going to look after her mother. Those friends never heard from her again.

Her relationship with her Australian-based brother Larry was also strained. After she refused to leave the family's Remuera home following their mother's death in 2019, Larry successfully went to the High Court to evict her so the property could be sold and the proceeds split.

Wakefield had been living in her car. Photo / Michael Craig

Again, she appeared to go MIA, with Larry even hiring a private investigator to try to find her.

Then, on July 7, Wakefield, aged 72, was found dead in her red Suzuki Swift on St Vincent Ave, near the family home, during an Auckland City Mission welfare check. It emerged she had been living in her car despite residents of the wealthy Auckland suburb repeatedly calling police and council for help, fearing that she wouldn't survive winter.

As details of the death emerged, North Shore woman Bev Calder-Myers realised it was her long-lost friend with whom she had tried to reconnect, to no avail.

"It was shocking. You live in the same town and you could have been of help. I would have loved to make contact with her. The fact she died alone in the car I find so terribly sad."

Long-lost friend

Calder-Myers became a close friend of Wakefield's after flying to Sydney for a wedding about 35 years ago.

She told the Herald on Sunday Wakefield had been enjoying a great social life with a close circle of friends in their 30s and 40s.

Bev Calder-Myers (second from right) met Wakefield (far right) when they were bridesmaids at a wedding together. Photo / Supplied

Wakefield worked part-time as a trained masseuse in Sydney while studying for a master's degree in psychology, Calder-Myers said. She became an Australian citizen and wanted to write a book about family history and how it could be repeated, her friend said.

Wakefield was very interested in the arts and went to galleries and classical concerts and was part of a great circle of friends who enjoyed socialising.

"She had boyfriends, but I haven't heard of her having any live-in relationships.

"She was quite softly spoken and spiritual and changed the spelling of her name to Halina, the Polish spelling, because she was quite connected to her Polish side.

"At one point, Helena told a friend she was going back to Auckland to look after her mother and never let on that she was never coming back."

Calder-Myers remembers getting a call from Wakefield at 1 o'clock in the morning to say the groom the pair were bridesmaids for at the wedding had died.

"I will never forget that."

She said she tried to contact Wakefield after she returned to New Zealand but no one among her friends had her address and she was led to believe Helena had a different married surname to the family name.

"I wonder if she suffered from some illness."

Calder-Myers wishes she had been in touch with Wakefield. Photo / Dean Purcell

Calder-Myers, who lives in the Auckland suburb of Castor Bay, said she was reading the newspaper one morning and saw the name of her long-lost friend.

"I thought, 'there can't be two people with that name'. And I contacted my friends in Sydney who said, 'it sounds like her'. The age was correct and she had a brother and we knew she had a brother. And then it all fell into place. It was her.

"The fact it was a friend touches your heart strings even more. For anybody to end that way is just tragic, in our country particularly."

She said Wakefield never had a good relationship with her brother, which may have had something to do with her looking after their mother, also named Helena.

Living in her car

Wakefield had lived with her mother in the Dempsey St, Remuera, home from December 2011. It is understood she was her full-time carer.

This week, Larry Wakefield said via his lawyer the pair had not been in close contact but he was so concerned when she couldn't be reached after she was evicted from their late mother's Remuera home that he hired a private investigator to find her.

He was unsure if she was even still in New Zealand or had returned to Australia.

"This is an extremely distressing time for me.

"Despite every effort the private investigator was unable to find Helena before she passed away last week," he said via his lawyer.

"I cannot understand why no action was taken until now after local residents expressed concerns and alerted authorities."

Police investigate the scene at Saint Vincent Avenue Remuera where Helena Wakefiled was found deceased in this red Suzuki Swift car. Photo / Michael Craig

A review is under way by Auckland Council after staff wrongly classed Helena as a freedom camper.

Council head of community delivery central/east, Kevin Marriott said: "Out of respect for her recent and sad passing, we cannot comment at this time."

Wakefield had been living in her car on another Remuera street since March where residents said it was so well kept they only realised she was living inside when they spotted her wiping the car's windows from the inside because of the condensation that had built up.

St Vincent Ave resident Sarah Miller said she repeatedly contacted Auckland Council and police about the homeless woman's predicament.

She said she felt "extremely sad" at hearing Wakefield had been forced out of a house so close to where she ended up living in her car.

"It's obvious she felt a connection to this area. The council needs to do better," Miller said.

"It's frightening to think where she might have been before she was on our street."

Court battle

Larry said that when their mother died in May 2019, her property had to be sold and the proceeds split between the siblings.

On February 17, 2021, Larry was granted sole executor of the estate after he filed legal proceedings.

Wakefield's mother's home where she was evicted from.

His sister left the property in December 2021.

"Helena was offered six months rent and when she left the property offered hotel accommodation until she got her half share. She did not take up these offers."

The $1.2 million property was bequeathed to Helena and her brother in their mother's 2008 will.

Helena jnr was also ordered to pay her brother $21,842 from her share of the estate for the unnecessary "time and expense of pursuing that application".

The death is being investigated by the coroner.