The homicide investigation into the two primary school-aged children found in suitcases at a Clendon Park property has expanded to South Korea. Video / NZ Herald
A month on from the discovery of the remains of two children in suitcases in South Auckland, Korean police are understood to have had little to no contact with their NZ counterparts after confirming a relative of the children was in the east Asian country.
The Herald has been in contact with a journalist from Korean national newspaper The Dong-a Ilbo who met with Seoul Police on Tuesday to get an update on their involvement in the New Zealand homicide investigation.
The journalist from Dong-a Ilbo said aside from the Korean National Police Agency confirming a female relative of the two deceased primary school-aged children had arrived in Korea in 2018, there had been no follow-up requests for information by NZ Police.
This included any requests for the location of the female relative in Korea, or inquiries around possible arrest warrants which could then potentially lead to extradition orders.
"Apart from asking if this woman is in Korea, there has not been any further request from NZ Police," the journalist for Dong-a Ilbo, which has a circulation of 1.2 million readers, said.
"The [Korean] police assumes that might be due to a lengthy legal procedure [in NZ] and he assumes it would take some time even [if] NZ police are thinking of it."
Police launched a homicide investigation after the remains of bodies were found at a property in Moncrieff Ave in Clendon Park on August 11. Photo / Dean Purcell.
On August 11, the remains of two children aged between 5 and 10 were uncovered in suitcases bought by the occupants of a property in Manurewa.
The suitcases were bought by the Manurewa residents unwittingly as part of an online auction for an abandoned storage unit.
NZ Police detective inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua later confirmed the bodies of the children in the suitcases had likely been stored in the Papatoetoe Safe Store storage facility three to four years before being discovered.
On August 22, the Korean National Police Agency confirmed a female relative of children had arrived Korea in 2018 and had no record of leaving the country since that year.
"We confirm that she is in South Korea, and that she is a New Zealand national of Korean descent," an official at the Korean National Police Agency said
"New Zealand police are leading this investigation and we intend to co-operate at their request."
The Safestore facility in Papatoetoe where a Clendon Park family reportedly purchased the contents of a storage locker that contained human remains, Auckland. Photo / Jed Bradley
But it appears since August 22 no further requests from NZ Police have been made to Korean police.
On August 26, NZ Police confirmed the remains of the two children had been identified, but due to a suppression order they could not be named. However other relatives of the children still living in New Zealand have been identified.
The father of the two dead children had died of cancer while living in New Zealand in late 2017, Stuff has reported.
NZ Police would not confirm to the Herald whether they had sent any police officers to Korea to conduct inquiries for the homicide investigation, or whether they intend to.
Human rights and criminal barrister, Dr Tony Ellis, has a long history working on extradition cases, and says it can take years to gather enough evidence for an arrest warrant and proceed through a public hearing in the relevant country to obtain an extradition order.
While New Zealand and the Republic of Korea do have an extradition treaty, this does not necessarily mean the process will be successful, he said.
"Just because you've got a treaty it doesn't mean you're going to allow your citizens to be extradited. You can see with Mr Dotcom how long it's taken," Ellis said.
"You need to have an arrest warrant to send to the foreign country to get the extradition on the basis of an offence. Basically the offence needs to be something where there's imprisonment over one year and the offence is a mirror image in both countries. There's obviously murder everywhere."
Ellis said it was extremely hard to gauge the likelihood of a successful arrest warrant to Korea for extradition of the female relative of the deceased children because it is not clear how much evidence NZ Police had beyond what was already public.
"Would there be enough [evidence]? Well possibly, but I think when the matter was taken before whatever the extradition court is in Korea - the District Court say - there would be more evidence than that: with witnesses saying 'I saw the children and they were last seen in X,Y,Z. Mrs whatever left...'
"It could be enough evidence but depending on what the [Korean relative] can say in response it might not be."
Ellis said particularly if you don't have a "death site" for where the children were murdered to investigate, it can be difficult to gather enough evidence for an arrest warrant.
"If you haven't got that, what are you investigating? ... Nobody seems to have noticed these two children have disappeared. So we don't know where the alleged murders or manslaughter, whatever the crime may be, we don't know where that is. We don't know if police are capable of finding the site, investigating it and coming up with some forensic evidence.
"I mean it's just an Agatha Christie story at the movement, isn't it? Murder in a suitcase."
Ellis said estimating the length of time for a potential extradition was a bit like the question "how long is a piece of string?"
"It may be a year. It could be a month, depending on whether people put up any defence on these things ... The other significant factor is how much money have they got? Because depending on that, you can hire a good lawyer or not."
