Gangland daughter 'murdered' says family

JAMES BODDINGTON

Katie Peirce (left) with her mother Wendy in 2002 after the murder of her father, gangland figure Victor Peirce.

The family of gangland widow Wendy Peirce believes her daughter Katie was killed when she was injected with a ''hot-shot'' of heroin.

Katie Peirce, 22, the daughter of underworld gunman Victor Peirce, was found dead from a suspected drug overdose at a Greensborough house about 2.50am on Tuesday.

Wendy Peirce's friend Henri Ser, speaking on behalf of the family, said as far as he was aware there was no indication that it was a suicide.

''Somebody might have injected her,'' Mr Ser said. ''News on the street was that they were under the impression that she might have been hot-shotted.

''That's when somebody gives you a hit of heroin that's three times the normal, or even 85 percent pure,'' he said.

Mr Ser, an outreach worker with the Father Bob Maguire Foundation, said he believed she was drug-free.

''It's totally out of character ... she's not the type for suicide and she was living for her daughter and I believe that she had been off drugs for a while.

''But she has never really ever got over the death of her father.''

Wendy Peirce, her three other children, Katie's uncle Trevor Pettingill and a close friend were all shocked.

The family will await a finding by a coroner and pleaded with the media to ''let us mourn her soul as we have suffered plenty over the years'', he said.

Katie Peirce, the mother of a young daughter aged about two, was on bail after being charged with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious injury over a meat-cleaver attack on a man at the Clare Castle Hotel, Port Melbourne, in March.

She had not been committed for trial over the pub attack. Her committal hearing had been only partly heard.

Wendy Peirce, 52, was also charged with attempted murder over the cleaver attack.

- © Fairfax NZ News