Police were last night searching the house of an associate of the man charged with the murder of Auckland mother Carmen Thomas.

Police investigating the murder of Carmen Thomas have this evening turned their attentions to an east Auckland house, according to a report.

A hockey representative who bashed a sex worker with a hockey stick and then struck another woman with a car as he was driving away has been jailed for 3-1/4 years.

A bag of clothing has been found on a construction site which could be temporarily closed as police search for clues in the Carmen Thomas murder inquiry.

Police investigating the murder of Carmen Thomas today removed what appeared to be items of clothing from the construction site where her accused killer worked.

More arrests - possibly including a woman - are likely in the Carmen Thomas case as police search an inner-city Auckland construction site to find tools used in her grisly death.

A close friend of Carmen Thomas says the young mother and the man accused of killing always tried to put their young son first.

The ex-partner of Carmen Thomas, who is accused of her murder, sought name suppression in court this afternoon so that their five-year-old son Jack could be told what had happened.

The identity of the man accused of killing Carmen Thomas has been revealed. Police say her body was dismembered after her murder.

A Chinese student accused of stabbing a woman to death and putting her body in a suitcase after a dispute over money was "shy and didn't say much", a jury heard today.

Police investigating the death of Auckland woman Carmen Thomas today lowered a camera down a hole in a central Auckland construction site, according to a worker on the site.

Police today questioned businesses in downtown Auckland in the hunt for clues to the slaying of Carmen Thomas.

A student admitted to a 111 operator that he had fatally stabbed another student, jurors hear.

John Key remains confident NZ will send a team to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

An inner-city Auckland construction site has become the focus of police investigating the murder of missing escort Carmen Thomas.

Inmate Latu Kepu has been sentenced to six years and four months for the manslaughter of a Waikato prison guard.