Woman who burned to death named

Emergency services at the scene where Ranjeeta Singh, inset, burned to death on Friday. Photos / Greg Bowker, Supplied

Police have identified the woman found burned to death next to a Huntly road.

She was 28-year-old Ranjeeta Sharma.

At a media conference today, Detective Senior Sergeant Nigel Keall said a focus of the homicide inquiry was establishing Ranjeeta's movements and how she came to be where her body was found on Hangapipi Road last Thursday night.

Mr Keall said Ranjeeta's husband was a person of "considerable interest" to the investigation and left New Zealand with the couple's four-year-old son on Friday.

Both Ranjeeta and her husband were originally from Fiji. Mr Keall would not comment on the status of their relationship.

Police are looking for anyone who may have seen Ranjeeta's silver Subaru station wagon - with the registration FSD433 - between south Auckland and the Huntly-Rotowaro area on Thursday or Friday.

He said police were working with Interpol and other overseas authorities to establish the well-being of the four-year-old boy.

Police launched a homicide investigation after it was established that Ranjeeta was alive when she was set alight, and that an accelerant was used.

They earlier said said they were not looking for a weapon, and that forensic tests were being used to identify the accelerant.

"We believe an accelerant was used to start the fire and we are awaiting the results of forensic samples taken from the scene to determine what that was," Mr Keall said yesterday.

Firefighters called to deal with the incident at first thought they had been called to a scrub fire.

They had offered trauma counselling.

- With NZPA