Focus on bush site

Police searching for the body of missing British backpacker Grace Millane yesterday closed off an area in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges.

A full scene examination was under way in a bush area in Scenic Drive.

The search was expected to take all day and the road was expected to be closed until 7pm yesterday.

Officers said they could not yet confirm if Millane’s body had been found.

On Saturday evening, police announced they would charge a 26-year-old man with her murder.

Millane, 22, from Essex in the United Kingdom, was last seen in central Auckland on December 1 and was reported missing on Wednesday.

Police had previously been speaking to the man over Millane’s disappearance. He was to remain in police custody until this morning when he was to appear at the Auckland District Court.

News of the expected murder charge came after police confirmed Millane’s disappearance was being treated as a homicide.

At a press conference on Saturday, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said police had gathered evidence, from surveillance footage and scene examinations at the Citylife Hotel in Queen St, that determined ‘‘Grace is no longer alive’’.

Beard said they were ‘‘determined to find her and return her to her family’’.

In Auckland, police continue to search the Citylife apartment where Millane was last seen at 9.41pm on December 1, and are sifting through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage.

They are also examining a ‘‘vehicle of interest’’, which was seized on Saturday.

Beard said he had no evidence to suggest Millane knew the man before Saturday night but detectives knew they were together from the time she was captured on surveillance footage at Skycity to the time she was seen at the Citylife Hotel.

Asked if the pair met on dating app Tinder, Beard said he would not speculate.

Detectives are still searching for some of Millane’s belongings, including her passport, a pale pink Casio Baby-g watch and a silver necklace with a green stone in the middle, which were missing from the Base Backpacker hostel where she was staying.

Police said Millane’s family was ‘‘devastated’’ by the news her disappearance was being treated as a murder investigation.

Her father, David Millane, arrived in Auckland from Essex on Friday.

Her brothers, Michael and Declan Millane, had been vocal in their search for their sister, urging people to share and retweet images of her online.

Millane was on a yearlong OE after graduating from the University of Lincoln in September.

The advertising graduate and keen artist arrived in New Zealand on November 20, after travelling through South America.

This was her first time travelling abroad alone.