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United States police say the net is closing on New Zealand fugitive Nai Yin Xue after a likely sighting by a store clerk in Mississippi.
Authorities were alerted just hours after the suspect left the store in Gulfport on Sunday (NZT), and will use surveillance footage to confirm if the customer was Xue.
The sighting follows extensive media coverage in Texas, Alabama and Mississippi.
"We feel that we're close," Inspector Dennis Aycox, a US marshal attached to the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, said.
Xue, say people who have spoken to him, is in bad shape.
He smells of sweat and urine, is often mistaken for a homeless man and tells sob stories to Chinese restaurant owners in the hope of food.
Xue, 53, is suspected of murdering his wife, Anan Liu, in Auckland last September and stuffing her body in the boot of a car.
He is also suspected of dumping his 3-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue, nicknamed Pumpkin, at a Melbourne train station.
- AAP
