KEY POINTS:
A mystery woman whose body was found in a south Auckland river nearly a week ago may have been kept for several days after she died by the people who put her in the river.
Police believe the woman, who they say was older than 30 and could be in her 60s or 70s could have been dead for about a week when her body was found wrapped in bedding and weighed down with a rock in the Wairoa River at Clevedon, south east of Auckland last Sunday.
However, she may have been dead for some time before she was put in the river, said Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Gutry.
He said the disposal of her body was deliberate and suspicious but that did not mean she had been murdered.
"Clearly where the body was placed, it was placed there deliberately and was not expected to be found.
"We are open to the cause of death being anything right from natural causes and panic for some reason (by those who put the body in the river) to drug abuse and overdose to violent death," said Mr Gutry.
He said police were visiting rest homes, geriatric homes and other institutions likely to care for patients wearing incontinence panties which were on the woman's body when it was found by two kayakers.
"It is going to be a long process working our way through it," said Mr Gutry.
The decomposing body was partly floating because of gases created by the decomposition. The state of the body also meant they could only say she was older than 30 and could be in her 60s or 70s.
Mr Gutry said the decomposition meant a post mortem had not yet been able to reveal how she died or even what her ethnicity was.
He said the post mortem had established she was a heavy smoker, had had children. She was also missing two front death which were missing when she died.
Mr Gutry said they had found similar bedding for sale in a Papakura shop and were now trying to find out how much of it was in the country and who may have bought it.
It was a reasonably light material which could have been an over cover for a bed.
One of the bedding items was a blue with a square pattern and pot pourri pattern. The other was green with a leaf pattern.
He said although the incontinence panties and missing teeth were distinctive features, there may be good reasons no one had come forward with a name.
"There are all sorts of reasons why they might not have been reported."
Today police would continue looking at their filling of missing persons but were finding most of the people who had been nominated were found when they knocked on doors.
He said anyone who may know the woman or anything about her death should ring police on 0800 River1 (0800 748 371).
- NZPA
