A relative of the two children whose remains were found in a suitcase in New Zealand last week was tracked to South Korea, police said.
According to immigration records, an unidentified woman, likely in her 40s, arrived in South Korea in 2018, the national police agency in Seoul said, adding that there has been no record of her departure.
Park Seung-hoon, an officer with the police agency, said the information has been conveyed to their New Zealand counterpart after receiving a request for investigative help.
However, the South Korean police reportedly have no authority at present to track down the woman’s whereabouts or detain her, given that she remains a New Zealand citizen.
The officer added that unless New Zealand officially requests the woman's extradition, it would be difficult for the Korean police to pursue her.
The situation may arise if the investigation proceeds to a point where Interpol places a red notice against her, the officer said.
The South Korea-born woman, suspected to be the mother of the dead children, had moved to New Zealand where she was granted citizenship. Her past address in New Zealand was registered to a storage unit where the suitcases were kept for years, according to officials.
The New Zealand police launched a homicide inquiry after remains of two children were found by a family who had bought a storage locker in an online auction last week in Auckland.
The family called the police when they discovered the remains in suitcases which were kept inside the storage locker. According to the police, a postmortem suggested the remains belonged to two children between the ages of five and 10.
“The bodies were concealed in two suitcases of similar size,” said Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua, adding: “I believe the suitcases have been in storage for a number of years.”
The family who purchased the suitcases are not linked to the deaths and are “understandably distressed” by their discovery, police said.
