Police will this morning release the name of the woman found dead in a water-logged ditch about 53km south of Auckland.
The woman, in her 20s, was killed just after 5 pm on Monday alongside Cuff Rd, near Patumahoe.
A post-mortem examination was carried out on the woman's body yesterday, but the
public have yet to be told the cause of death.
Police yesterday drained the ditch for evidence and examined a car identified by a witness to the killing.
The witness said he was collecting his children from a home on Cuff Rd when he saw a one-handed Maori or Pacific Island man lying on a woman in the ditch and trying to drown her.
He challenged the attacker, who took a sawnoff shotgun from a green Corolla and threatened him.
The witness left, but returned later to find the woman lying dead face-up in a pool of water.
