Police now believe a report of a body left in a West Auckland dumpster may have been a hoax.
Police were searching two landfills - Henderson and Redvale - and three full trucks of rubbish had been recalled from the Redvale site to be searched by investigators.
Police northern communications
centre inspector Lou Alofa said police had received a tip off of a body seen in a high school rubbish skip.
The information however, was "second to third-hand information" so police were sceptical that the call was genuine.
"But because there's a mention of a body, we have to do something. We
have to do at least a preliminary search," Mr Alofa said.
"Sometimes that can take a lot of hours."
Waitakere City Council's solid waste business unit manager Jon Roscoe said police arrived at the dump site at around 8.30am.
"They came in and closed us down and said it was because they were looking for a body."
Mr Roscoe said the truck that had picked up rubbish in the region where the body was thought to have been seen had been identified.
Shortly before 1.30pm police were still at the Henderson dump site searching masses of rubbish.
"There's about six of them in blue overalls," he said.
That search has since been abandoned and police are continuing their search at the Redvale dump site.
