Body recovered in Far North

Police during a search of bush in the Far North earlier this year after Kimble Moore was reported missing.

A police team have recovered a body during a two-day search of bush in the Far North.

Detective Senior Sergeant Rhys Johnston confirmed the body had been found today in a rural bush area 20 minutes east of Kaitaia.

"We believe the body may have been there for some time and it has been a methodical process to preserve any potential evidence," Mr Johnston said.

A specialist search team were helped by a pathologist and several scientists from ESR in Auckland. The search would continue tomorrow.

He said formal identification of the deceased would take some time and police would not be releasing any further details until that had been completed.

The body will be taken from the scene today and a post-mortem examination will be held in Auckland tomorrow.

Earlier today police said the search was part of their investigation into the disappearance of gang member Kimble Moore.

Mr Moore had been missing since March and last month police upgraded the investigation to a homicide.

Mr Moore, 48, from Waipapakauri, was reported missing by his partner from a Taipa address early on Friday, March 18.

More than 20 police and volunteers searched an isolated area of bush northeast of Kaitaia in March for Moore.

The search included 10 police officers from Whangarei's Search and Rescue group, a dog handler from Auckland with a cadaver dog trained to locate bodies, and 11 trained volunteers from Far North Search and Rescue.

They searched a 3km stretch of roadside as well as 21ha of native bush, pine and gum trees for any sign of Mr Moore.