Clues to identity after body-in-bag find
Photos of woman’s clothes released as police seek information on killer
Police have revealed more details in the hunt for the killer of a woman whose body was fished from the water at a Gulf Harbour marina wrapped in plastic rubbish bags.
Acting Detective Inspector Tim Williams said yesterday that a postmortem examination of the body had been completed.
Police had not yet been able to identify the victim, saying only that she was female, middle-aged and of Asian descent.
The woman was about 160cm tall. Williams dismissed any speculation the woman was Yanfei Bao, a real estate agent who went missing in Christchurch on July 19 last year.
But police yesterday released pictures of patterned blue pyjama bottoms and an emblem on a singlet the woman was wearing when her body was found.
Williams confirmed Interpol was involved in the investigation in a bid to identify the woman.
“We’re asking any member of the public who recognises this description of this woman to come forward to police,” Williams said.
“She might be someone’s mother, or sister or grandmother.”
Williams said the investigation was complex, as police were still trying to work out why, when and where the woman died.
“We’re continuing to treat this matter very seriously and we’re determined to hold the person or persons accountable for this death.
“If there’s a woman in your community who matches this description that you haven’t seen for a while or have concerns about, please make contact with the investigation team.”
People had already come forward with CCTV footage and other information about the woman, who was found wrapped in black plastic rubbish sacks, Williams said.
He said Chinese-speaking police officers were integral to their investigation, and police were also talking to New Zealand-Chinese media organisations to help their investigation.
On any potential risk to the wider public, Williams said he was confident it was an isolated incident.
There would be a large police presence around Whangapara¯oa in the coming days.
The discovery of the body was initially treated as unexplained before police upgraded it to a homicide investigation.
Police were called to a reserve at Gulf Harbour on Tuesday afternoon after the body was found by fisherman Paul Middleton.
He described how he saw something large floating in the water.
“I [cast] my lure out . . . and nothing much was happening, but there was a bag out there,” he told RNZ on Tuesday.
At the time, he did not know it was a bag and thought it was a log or a dead animal.
He hooked it and pulled it into the shore — it was heavy but he managed to pull it up the rocks.
“I took the hook out and thought, ‘Right, let’s see if it’s a bag of rubbish and I need to dump it in a rubbish bin or something’.”
There was “a bit of clothing . . . and then there was this hand sticking out”.
It was then he called police. “Two cops turned up and they thought I’d actually said there’s just a hand in a bag and then they went down there and went, ‘Oh no we’ve got a body’,” Middleton said.
Tourists parked in a camper van at Gulf Harbour said they noticed something large floating in the water a day before the body was found.
Police have urged anyone with information to contact police on 105 or go online and use reference file number 240312/9837. Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.