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New Zealand has confirmed the identities of two children whose remains were found stuffed inside suitcases, but their names will not be made public at the request of their families, police said Friday.
Detectives are continuing to investigate the deaths, which have rocked the country since the bodies were recovered two weeks ago.
The grisly discovery came after an unsuspecting family bought a trailer-load of items — including the suitcases — at an auction for abandoned goods near Auckland, the country’s biggest city.
Police have said the family who purchased the suitcases are not connected to the deaths. They are receiving support to help deal with the trauma, officials said at the time.
The children were between 5 and 10 years old and had been dead for a number of years, and the suitcases had been kept in storage for at least three or four years, police previously said.
A coroner has issued an order to not make public any evidence that could reveal the identities of the children, detective inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua said.
On Monday, police in South Korea’s capital Seoul said they had located a woman believed to be related to the children.
Immigration records show that the unidentified woman in her 40s arrived in South Korea in 2018, but there has been no record of her departure since, said Park Seung-hoon, an official at the National Police Agency in Seoul.
The woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand where she gained citizenship. New Zealand police suspect the woman could be the mother of the children found dead, as her past address in New Zealand was registered to a storage unit where the suitcases were kept for years, according to Park.
Police have been checking hours of CCTV footage, but key moments could have already been erased due to the delay between when the victims died and the discovery of the bodies.
Both the storage unit and property where the suitcases were taken have been thoroughly examined by forensic experts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
First published on August 26, 2022 / 9:07 AM
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