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Police believe the car involved in a fatal hit and run in south Auckland on Monday was stolen earlier in the day in a suburb more than 10km away.
The car was found burning at the Manukau Sports Bowl about 10am today, less than 1km from the Westfield Shopping Mall carpark in central Manukau City where Joanne Wang was struck on Monday.
Mrs Wang, a 39-year-old bakery owner, died early yesterday from head injuries. She was knocked down by a white 4WD the previous afternoon after chasing a man who grabbed her handbag in the carpark.
Her eight-year-old son saw her being robbed and then run over.
Emergency services were called about 10am today by a neighbour who had noticed a fire had started in a white Nissan 4WD at Manukau Sports Bowl.
Detective Inspector John Tims said he was confident the car found today was the car involved in Mrs Wang's death.
"It is a vehicle that was stolen in Glen Innes (about 14km north of Manukau City) on Monday and it is the vehicle that we are looking for," Mr Tims told Radio New Zealand.
"We have seized that vehicle. ESR (Environmental Science and Research, the forensic investigators) went down to the scene, the vehicle's been taken away and ESR will carry on their examination of that vehicle at their work."
Mr Tims said there was a good chance some members of the public had seen the vehicle since Mrs Wang was struck.
"This 4WD was stolen on Monday, it's been driven around from Monday to Wednesday, it's probably been parked in different streets and places," Mr Tims said.
"There may be members of the public that have seen this vehicle driven or parked somewhere so we'd like to hear from them."
The vehicle was well involved in fire when emergency services found it and was quite badly destroyed but Mr Tims thought some useful forensic evidence could be gathered.
"It may be difficult but we're hopeful and ESR can do some amazing things these days so we're hopeful that forensic evidence will be found."
Mr Tims said he didn't believe Mrs Wang had any large amounts of cash or valuables in the bag which was stolen. He was unsure if it had been found in the car.
Police are also calling for sightings of a red four-door car which appeared to have been struck by the 4WD, and a blue-green people-mover which was "close to the action".
Mr Tims said it was unclear if the red vehicle had been struck.
The inquiry team have also today been enhancing the security camera footage of the cars film which they hope will allow better identification of the vehicles.
The attack on Mrs Wang was the second attack in the mall carpark in two days.
Less than 24 hours earlier, another Asian woman who was carrying her store's takings locked herself into her car to escape two attackers. The men ran off when they failed to get in.
Anyone with information can call police on 0508 Manukau (0508 67 62 685).
- NZPA
Anyone with information about the latest homicide is asked to call police on (0508) OP Manukau, or (0508) 676-2685
