Body confirmed as that of Anan Liu

Fairfax Media

CRIME SCENE: A woman's body was found in the boot of this car owned by fugitive father Nai Yin Xue. It has been confirmed that is was the body of his wife Anan Liu, inset. The car sat outside his home for days with nobody realising its grim contents.

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Auckland police have confirmed the body of the woman discovered in the boot of a car yesterday was that of 27 year-old Anan Liu, mother of abandoned toddler Qian Xue.
We're not incompetent, cops say

A post-mortem examination carried out today revealed that Ms Liu had died "during a violent episode, though the pathologist can't be precise about when she died", police said in a statement.

Detective senior sergeant Simon Scott said a warrant had been issued for the arrest of her husband, Nai Yin Xue.

"We have good reason to believe he is in the United States of America and we have the correct processes in place to be able to detain him there if located," he said.

No weapons were being sought in connection with her death.

Forensic examination of the "Chinese News" car in which Ms Liu was found was continuing, as was the examination of the couple's Keystone Ave, in Mt Roskill.

Meanwhile, the powerful US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has offered New Zealand Police help in finding Nai Yin Xue.

Interpol headquarters in Washington have issued an alert and the US Marshall's office is also involved in the search for Mr Xue.

An FBI official told Fairfax Media that they had offered New Zealand police help.

She would make no other comment.

But law enforcement sources in Los Angeles said multiple agencies were now looking for Mr Xue.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service have confirmed he arrived on a Qantas flight at the city's LAX airport on Saturday.

Because no warrant existed at that stage he was allowed to leave the airport for the city where he is understood to have a wide range of contacts.

An official at Interpol told The Melbourne Age website a "red notice" had been sent from Interpol headquarters to law enforcement authorities in the United States.

This is not a formal arrest warrant notice, an enforcement source told Fairfax, but provided authorities with the basis to question Mr Liu if he comes to their attention.

The source said they could not arrest him on the basis of the red notice at this point.

A warrant from the United States Attorney General, part of the Justice Department, would have to be issued and this would only be obtained with the backing of an Interpol warrant issued at New Zealand's request.

Mr Xue could challenge the right of US authorities to arrest him in court and he could also go to court in a bid to prevent extradition to either Australia or New Zealand.

The source said all that could be short circuited if US law enforcement units established that Mr Xue had committed an offence in the US itself.

"We may have local reasons to detain him," the source said.

Another agency, the US Marshalls Office, was also known to be "making rumbling sounds" over the case, although they would not normally be involved in front line arresting of people wanted on international arrest warrants.

The Marshals Office, another federal agency, is usually only involved in escorting US federal prisoners and finding escaped US prisoners at home and aboard.

Earlier New Zealand police international relations manager Detective Senior Sergeant Phil Foster said Interpol in Washington had been advised that Mr Xue was being sought and formal inquiries had been made to try to locate him, despite claims to the contrary by the LAPD.

"The New Zealand police have formally started a process and I'm at a loss to understand the comments that have been made by the Los Angeles police," Mr Foster said on Radio New Zealand today.

"It could very well be that...there may be a problem with the information getting to Los Angeles, but you know I can't comment about that at all."

An arrest warrant for Mr Xue was not necessary, he said.

"Interpol is a big organisation and we have mutually agreed aims.

Therefore we could ask any country to assist us and there doesn't need to be any sort of arrest warrant in place."

To extradite Mr Xue a process had to be followed, he said.

"It's not just a matter of ... a country arresting someone on your behalf.

"There has to be a formal process that we go through, through diplomatic channels and of course the country's got to agree to do that."

New Zealand would never ring a local police station overseas to ask for assistance, Mr Foster said.

"There are formal processes and we would be chastised if we did that here from New Zealand.

"We would always go to the Interpol office of the country and ask for assistance and then leave it to them to go about doing what they had to do."

Melbourne police said they had not alerted US authorities because Qian's welfare was their main priority.

A Victorian police spokesman said any arrest warrant request would have to come from New Zealand.

"If they think (Mr Xue) is involved in his wife's disappearance, we are hardly going to want to extradite him for abandoning a child."