KEY POINTS:
Police are trying to fill a crucial nine-hour gap in the movements of a family found dead in their burnt house in Christchurch early on Monday morning.
Officers have established that the fire was deliberately lit and have launched a murder investigation.
Today, inquiry head Detective Inspector Greg Williams said he would not comment until after the post mortems on whether it was the fire that killed the victims or whether they were already dead when the fire took hold.
He refused to say whether a weapon had been found in the house and said officers were still examining the scene and would be at the property for another two or three days.
Mr Williams said: "What we do know now is that the family was alive and well up to about 10.30pm on Sunday night and the Fire Service was called to the house about 7.20 in the morning.
"The real focus of the inquiry right now is around those two times to determine exactly what's happened."
Four bodies were found in the house in Puriri St, Riccarton, but only two have so far been identified. They are Junichi Tomonaga, 58, and his mother Michiko, aged 80.
Police hope to release the names of the other two victims after the completion of post mortem examinations today.
Mr Williams said he wanted anyone who had had financial or social contact with the family, or who had been to the house, to contact police.
Police were aware the formerly wealthy Tomonaga family had been facing some financial difficulties in recent times.
It was revealed yesterday they had fallen on hard times after getting involved with a convicted fraudster in 1998.
Mr Tomonaga had been working as a driver for a radiator reconditioning company and the family faced being made homeless as the Puriri St house, in which they shared a flat, was due to be demolished to make way for new units.
The family came to New Zealand in the late 1980s and lived in their own suburban Redcliffs home before renting in leafy Puriri St.
- NZPA
