Family conference to settle Qian's future

The future of the three-year-old abandoned by her father will be sorted out at a family conference on Monday and go before a Family Court judge within days.

Qian Xun Xue, named by police as Pumpkin, was left at a Melbourne railway station platform by her father, Nai Yin Xue, hours before he fled to Los Angeles.

The body of his wife, Anan Liu, was found in the boot of a car outside their home in Mt Roskill, Auckland, several days later. An autopsy revealed she had died in a "violent episode".

Anan Liu's mother, Xiao Ping Liu, flew into Auckland this week and the 27-year-old's body was cremated after a private "farewell ceremony" in the suburb of Meadowbank on Wednesday.

Sources say Mrs Liu and Qian's half-sister Grace Xue will decide the child's future during the family conference and it will be ratified by the Family Court on Thursday.

The Justice Ministry said the hearing date would not be confirmed till next week.

It was understood that though Ms Xue had expressed an interest in adopting her half-sister, she could not afford to raise her and would not contest Mrs Liu's application for custody.

She wanted Qian to stay in New Zealand, however, so she could be part of her life and give her the love she said she never received as a child, a source said.

Ms Xue claims to have also been abandoned by their father, two months after he brought the then 19-year-old to New Zealand from China.

Ms Liu wants to take Qian back to China and raise her in a way that "Anan would like to see".

"Anan told me not long ago that she'd decided to take Qian Xun back to China," Mrs Liu told mourners at the farewell ceremony.

"We could reunite and go to see the 2008 Olympics. It's a promise now that could never be realised."

Anan Liu's ashes would be taken back to Changsha, China, where a full funeral service would be held.

Qian Xun did not attend the ceremony. A family associate told the Chinese Herald that she had started to cry when Mrs Liu tried to leave her to view her daughter's body on Tuesday - the day of a traditional family celebration, the Mid-Autumn Festival.

"Ms Liu had to lie to her that she was going to buy her some chip ... and Qian Xun finally let go."

The hunt for Xue in the United States is dominating Los Angeles' Chinese media.

Cat Chao, the host of a Mandarin-language radio talkback show, said everyone wanted to catch him.

Xue is understood to have completed a court-ordered programme for violent offenders in June after a knife incident at the family's former home in New Lynn, Auckland.

Anan Liu was granted a protection order following the incident.

- © Fairfax NZ News