Queens Counsel Peter Williams has criticised the police delay in locating the body of An An Liu, putting the delay down to incompetence, saying the car was an obvious place to search.
Williams says on the facts available it took 45 hours from the time police first went into the street before they opened the boot and looked inside. Williams says it’s inexplicable why it took police so long to search the car.
But police are defending their work and are happy with the speed of the inquiry.
“I am satisfied my staff have done an excellent job, taking their time and that examination around that vehicle is going to reveal evidence as to how the person who is in the vehicle has met their death,” said Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott.
Interpol is helping in the search for Xue but Los Angeles police say they can’t do anything until an arrest warrant is issued. LAPD spokeswoman Karen Smith says the first contact her department had with New Zealand came from media inquiries.
Meanwhile arrangements are being made to bring the mother of the woman whose body is thought to have been found in the boot of a car in Auckland to New Zealand.
The mother of An An Liu is said to be struggling to come to terms with the apparent death of her daughter and desertion of her granddaughter.
National MP Pansy Wong has been in touch with the family and hopes to have Mrs Liu in the country as soon as possible. The grandmother is expected to make funeral arrangements for her daughter and then take her granddaughter back to China.
