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Prime Minister Helen Clark says there may be lessons for New Zealand police to learn once Auckland woman's Anan Liu killer has been caught.
At her post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon Miss Clark carefully chose her words when questioned by reporters about a delay in searching the car Ms Liu's body was found in and in alerting United States police that her husband murder suspect Nai Yin Xue had flown to Los Angeles.
The police investigation was sparked after Xue abandoned his three-year-old daughter Qian Xun Xue, at a Melbourne railway station on September 15 before he caught his plane.
"Overall I am going to judge the police performance on whether there can be a successful prosecution of a person for murder," Miss Clark said.
Miss Clark said Ms Liu's death was horrific and was a "terrible tragedy".
"Obviously there are some issues for the police around why it took so long to actually investigate the car and whether it should have been considered part of the crime scene from the beginning," she said.
"Probably everybody who looks at the story has a view about that but I'd like to hear their side of it first."
Miss Clark said it would appear that the car was of interest to the investigation.
"In the public debate around it, some have said they should have gone straight to it; others have said they need to be very careful about the procedure which they follow because they don't want to prejudice a later prosecution."
She added: "I think in the wash-up of this we need to see whether there are lessons which can be learnt by the Kiwi police."
- NZPA
