Walkway focus of murder inquiry

Police will today begin a thorough search alongside the North-western Motorway in the hope of finding further items belonging to murdered Chinese woman Xiukun Feng.

The search follows the recovery of Ms Feng's Samsung cellphone which was handed in to police by a member of the public.

The person found the phone on a walkway which runs alongside the motorway on Sunday, May 1 - the same day the 54-year-old's body was found in the back seat of her husband's parked car.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Sutton said the walkway, which runs between Pt Chevalier and Patiki, is used by lots of people and police would like to hear from anyone else who found property on the path in the past nine days.

Some of the items police are still trying to find are Ms Feng's red handbag, a gold and black watch and a keyring with a distinctive cat face on it.

Ms Feng, who is also known as Nancy, is believed to have been killed in the early hours of Saturday, April 30.

She was found with fatal head injuries in the car which was parked in the carpark of The Warehouse in New Lynn.

A security guard patrolling the Rata St carpark saw the car with Ms Feng's body slumped in the back on Saturday but did not contact police until Sunday morning when he realised neither the car nor the body had moved.

The car, registered to Ms Feng's husband but used by her, was parked less than 1km from the Night Pearl massage parlour she owned in Gt North Rd.

As well as today's search of the walkway, police are continuing extensive searches of nearby creeks and an industrial address not far from the massage parlour.

Police are also talking to members of the Chinese community, former associates, friends and family.

Chinese interpreters have been brought in to help with language difficulties, which have slowed the gathering of information.