Police believe that the family of the two children, whose remains were earlier found in suitcases in New Zealand, is living in Asia, the Daily Mail has quoted unnamed sources as claiming.
The sources argued that the suggestion was the result of the ongoing collaboration between New Zealand police and the international criminal police agency Interpol in the ongoing homicide investigation.
The claims come after New Zealand Police Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua told reporters on Thursday that the children's bodies, who are between five and ten years old, might been inside the suitcases for three or four years.
He said that detectives were still working to confirm the identities of the children, adding, “the nature of this discovery provides some complexities to the investigation, especially given the time lapsed between the time of death and the time of discovery.”
“A lot of us (in the police) are parents and we have a job to do and we're doing our very best to identify the victims. What I can say is we are making very good progress with DNA inquiries. The investigation team is working very hard to hold accountable the person or persons responsible for the death of these children,” he stressed.
At the same time, Vaaelua admitted that police “still have a lot of unanswered questions” as they go ahead with their “fact-finding mission.” The detective inspector added that he “really feels for the family of these victims, there are relatives out there that aren't aware that their loved ones are deceased, especially two young children.”
Police launched a probe into the case after they received on August 11 a call from an unsuspecting South Auckland family, who bought the luggage at an abandoned storage unit auction before discovering that human remains were inside.
Detectives confirmed that the family had been not involved in the deaths of the children any way, and that they had left Auckland to avoid communicating with the media.