KEY POINTS:
A missing person search is now a homicide investigation as police step up the hunt for fugitive Aucklander Nai Yin Xue.
The body of an Asian woman - presumed to be Mr Xue's missing wife An An (Annie) Liu - was yesterday found in the boot of the
54-year-old's car.
But police are refusing yet to call Mr Xue a suspect, instead making a plea for him to get in touch with them.
"There's a New Zealand police website. You can find our telephone number.
The inquiry head, Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott, yesterday said Mr Xue - understood to have fled to the United States - could find a contact number on the New Zealand Police website.
"Please telephone us because we just want to get to the bottom of this," he said.
Mr Scott said later that Mr Xue was "a person we need to speak to and is a person of interest to our inquiry".
Detectives had been searching for An An since the couple's 3-year-old daughter Qian was found abandoned at a Melbourne railway station on Saturday.
It is understood Mr Xue left the girl, then caught a flight to the United States.
He and his daughter left New Zealand last Thursday night.
The Honda Rafaga car - advertising Mr Xue's Chinese Times newspaper - had been outside the couple's Keystone Ave, Mt Roskill, home for days.
Though the body has yet to be formally identified, Qian's grandmother, Liu Xiao Ping, has been told of the discovery.
She is understood to have applied for papers to leave China to travel to Australia to meet Qian, who is in foster care.
Mr Scott yesterday refused to discuss a possible cause of death. A post mortem examination was to be made today.
The last official sighting of Mr Xue was at Henderson police station last Thursday morning, when he collected a samurai sword and his passport from police.
The items were given back to him because charges against him had been dropped after An An refused to give evidence against him.
He then went to KVB Kunlun on Queen St in central Auckland and withdrew US$6445 ($8800) around noon.
A spokeswoman for the bank yesterday refused to comment on whether Xue was a customer, or whether he had been in the bank last Thursday.
She said the bank would not question any withdrawal unless it was more than $5 million.
A Chinese Embassy official in Wellington said last night the the embassy would be liaising with police in trying to find Mr Xue.
"China is a member of Interpol and we have a good communication with New Zealand Police and will offer whatever assistance they need to help the little girl's father," a spokesman said. "But the New Zealand authorities have not requested any help.
The spokesman said China would assist Qian's grandmother if she needed to travel to Australia to apply for custody of her granddaughter.
"She would need to apply to Australia for a visa but she doesn't need permission to travel from the Chinese authorities.
"It is a complicated case, and there are issues such as custody rights."
Neighbours and those who knew An An Xue are coming to terms with the fact her body was apparently stuffed into a car and left on the street as residents, police and reporters milled around it.
"Nobody noticed because there's so many cars on the street," said Keystone Ave resident Tarbeep Chand.
Sarah Montagu said it was "shocking to know she's in that car".
"It's quite scary, really. The car was parked there for a while. It's a permanent fixture on that street."
A one-time dance partner of An An was also shaken by events.
The man - who did not want to be named - described An An as "a lovely lady", who he was "99.0 per cent" sure he recognised when he spotted her picture in the Herald.
"I said to my wife, when I saw the front page, 'that's her'."
He said he remembered An An and Qian from about five months ago at the weekly dance classes, held at Epsom Normal Primary.
Qian was always well behaved on the occasions she accompanied her mother to the classes.
"She was always running around the fringes, but never crying or whining for her mum."
The man - an experienced salsa dancer who helped at the classes sometimes - said An An was polite, with a "lovely, soft, gentle demeanour".
"She knew how to move and she had the rhythm."
The picture of An An in Wednesday's Herald was an accurate depiction of her personality, he said.
"She was like that in real life."