Police return to landfill to search for severed hands

Police have returned to Wellington's Happy Valley tip to look for the hands and clothes of slain Wellington man Tony Stanlake after receiving fresh information.

Mr Stanlake's mutilated body was found in the sea off Wellington's south coast near the tip on July 9. His head was partially severed and his hands cut off.

Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich, head of Operation Red Rocks, was due to hold a briefing at the landfill site this afternoon.

A total of 40 police, including 32 recruits, are searching a section of the tip, about the size of a football field. They are searching through commercial and household refuse about half a metre to a metre deep.

Wellington District police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said police had received fresh information that had prompted the search. A smaller area of the landfill had earlier been searched and some items of interest found.

Mr Stanlake's hands and clothing from his upper body are still missing.

There have been two arrests in the case.

Daniel Robert Moore, 21, of Lower Hutt, has been charged with Mr Stanlake's murder and Peter George Leach, 21, a butcher from Miramar, Wellington, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

- NZPA