The children are said to have been around primary school age.
It has now been revealed that the human remains discovered in what is now said to be two suitcases found at an auction in New Zealand belong to the bodies of two children, as per national media.
The remains found last Thursday were unwittingly stumbled upon by a family who bought a trailer full of items from a storage unit in Auckland, unaware of the contents. The family were quickly ruled out in connection to the case.
According to Detective inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua, the children are said to have been around primary school age - "between five and ten-years-old" - and were likely to have been hidden away in storage for several years. He described cases like this as "horrific" and "never an easy task."
You can see his full press conference here:
Beyond forensics, local authorities are now said to be collecting CCTV footage as part of the investigation but have admitted it will be challenging due to the long period of time between the deaths and the discovery of their remains, adding that a large amount of relevant CCTV footage could have already been lost.
DI Vaaelua also went on to detail how the the post-mortem investigation faced some difficulties in their ability to identify the children given decomposition but that identities have since been confirmed. It is believed that relatives of the victims have remained in New Zealand.
While he stated that his team are on a "fact finding mission and we still have a lot of unanswered questions," the first priority is to contact the next of kin.
Vaaelua could not comment on if his team had contacted the previous owner of the unit or not but said that with the help from the storage company and Interpol, they have begun pursuing "positive lines of inquiry."
