Auckland murder fugitive still in US

Fugitive father Nai Yin Xue, suspected of murdering his wife in Auckland before abandoning his three-year-old daughter in Melbourne, is still in hiding in Los Angeles, police say.

However, US Marshal Tom Hession, said police were "working some leads and developing some information" since the case aired twice on the popular crime fighting television show America's Most Wanted.

"I am very confident he is still in the country and I am pretty confident he is still in the greater Los Angeles area."

Mr Hession said he would not say they were closing in on Xue but they were working some "interesting leads".

"We feel confident down the road we will make an arrest," he told NZPA.

He said Xue was probably getting some help to stay in hiding and police were looking at several people.

"But I really can't go into detail."

He said the search for Xue would not be scaled down and an officer was working on it every day. If it needed more resources and manpower it would get them, he said.

"We are going to work it until we make an arrest or prove that he left the country.

"We are committed to it. We have adequate personnel and if I need more I can always get more."

Xue fled New Zealand on September 13 last year, several days before the body of his wife An An Liu, 27, was found in the boot of the family car outside their Mt Roskill home.

He took his daughter Qian Xun Xue with him to Melbourne but security camera footage showed him abandoning her at the Southern Cross Railway Station before he boarded a flight to Los Angeles on September 15.

America's Most Wanted also aired footage of Qian Xun, dubbed "Pumpkin", standing alone at the railway station and that struck a chord with people in America who saw the programme, Mr Hession said.

"He left her and walked away," Hession said earlier. "He doesn't turn around, doesn't look to see if she was okay.

"He didn't care. He just left her."

- NZPA