KEY POINTS:
Murder suspect and international fugitive Nai Yin Xue is likely to come back to New Zealand with three or four American official escorts.
Xue, 54, is wanted for allegedly murdering his wife An An Liu before fleeing to Australia with his three-year-old daughter Qian Xun Xue, then dumping her at a Melbourne train station last September.
As station officials tried to find out her name and where she came from, Xue was boarding a flight to Los Angeles.
Xue disappeared in Los Angeles before heading across America in a 1996 Ford Thunderbird to Atlanta, Georgia.
He was caught last Friday by six Chinese Americans who recognised him from his picture in a Chinese language newspaper and checked the details on the America's Most Wanted website.
Xue had been in the custody of American authorities since his capture and was likely to be deported for overstaying later this week or early next week.
He was being held in the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Detention Centre in Lumpkin.
Two Auckland detectives arrived America this week to interview the people who caught Xue and track down his car in the search for evidence.
The two detectives did not have custody of Xue, Auckland police said today. He was being held by American authorities and would be handed over to New Zealand police when he landed in Auckland, probably within a week.
The American authorities were expected to send at last three or four escorts with Xue on the long trip back to New Zealand.
The trip was expected to take 24 hours or longer by the time Xue boarded a flight for the five-hour trip across America to Los Angeles and waited for the 12-hour international flight to Auckland.
It was not known if Xue would be handcuffed for the flight to New Zealand but he was considered to be a martial arts expert and it was expected American authorities would take no chances.
Xue had yet to be formally charged with the murder of his wife but police said an information had been laid against his name at the District Court in Auckland and a warrant for his arrest had been issued. He would be charged when he arrived back in New Zealand.
- NZPA AKL
