Clendon Park suitcase homicide case: How forensic investigators work

By Amy Williams of RNZ

This story discusses graphic details of forensic investigation.

A forensic pathologist says the bodies of two young children found among a storage unit's abandoned contents earlier this month have likely been reduced to skeletons.

Police are investigating the case as a homicide and said the children, believed to be aged between 5 and 10 years old, may have been hidden in the suitcases in an Auckland storage yard for several years.

The family who found the remains were not connected to the case.

Forensic Pathology South Island clinical director Dr Leslie Anderson, who is not directly involved in working on the case, said identifying the remains could take months.

"After multiple years, a body in a suitcase you would expect would likely be largely skeletonised, but ... it will depend a lot on the materials directly around the body," she said.

"Often you aren't able to get things like fingerprints, so you have to rely on DNA or comparison of dental records. But all of those things require comparison of data from a known person, so they have to be someone who has gone to a dentist."

Anderson said DNA from a parent or sibling could help to identify the remains.

Forensic pathologists look at an entire body and the circumstances around a person's death.

Police are investigating the case as a homicide. Photo / Dean Purcell

"We can often find some clues, so even in the most difficult of cases we can often provide at least some information to go on."

She said such clues could be signs of blunt force trauma or bullet holes in bones.

Anderson said investigating any death involving a child was distressing, and forensic pathologists were among those who seek justice for those who had died in foul play.

"Any kind of death involving a child, where there's a potential for violence ... an untimely death, is gut-wrenching and one of the more difficult things we deal with," she said.

"There's a lot of awful scenes out there that we see ... so it's hard to say what's a worst case, but certainly dealing with the deaths of children is a really difficult part of our job."

The South Island pathology team was tight-knit and it debriefed together on difficult cases, she said.

"Finding meaning in what we do is also really crucial, especially in those cases where a child is involved. I try and look at it as my chance to speak for that child and find answers around why they died, and if necessary to help find out what happened and bring anybody to justice who was involved in foul play," Anderson said.

"These awful things happen, and we can at least play a role in trying to make it better for the families and for the child who's deceased."