1 Apr 2020

Police search Auckland house after bones found near Desert Road

5:57 pm on 1 April 2020

Police are searching an Auckland property in connection with human remains found last week off the Desert Road.

Police at the scene after the remains were discovered.

Emergency services at the site where the bones were found south of Taupō last week. Photo: NZ Police / Supplied

Police said yesterday they believed the body belonged to a Chinese man in his 30s who had been missing since 2017.

They said his death was being treated as suspicious.

The remains were found by police last week, buried at an isolated site off Rangipo Intake Road south of Taupō in the central North Island.

Detective Inspector John Sutton said police yesterday executed a search warrant on a property in Auckland's Massey, but this could be a lengthy process.

A team of detectives, ESR scientists and photographers were involved in the scene examination.

Sutton said the address was recently sold and its current occupants were unconnected to the investigation.

However, they had been relocated by police for the duration of the scene examination.