Attribute to acting Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin, Auckland City Police:
Police are continuing with its homicide investigation following the death of a man in Epsom in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The scene examination remains ongoing at the Manukau Road premises and a post-mortem has since been completed.
Our priority at this stage is to continue in the work to formally identify the victim and notify his next of kin.
While Police would not normally comment on identification at this point in the process, Police would like to clarify that the deceased's ethnicity is not Asian.
This is an important process that must be carried out thoroughly and we are unable to comment further on the identification of the deceased at this juncture.
Overnight, Police have located and recovered the Toyota Yaris sought in connection with the investigation.
We would like to thank the member of the public who contacted Police with information about sighting the vehicle in the Mt Roskill area.
The vehicle has been seized and will be subject to further forensic examination later today.
We appreciate the public's information and support so far, but the investigation team is still looking for sightings of the Toyota Yaris on Monday night (March 9) or Tuesday morning (March 10).
We are also maintaining our appeal for anyone that worked or visited the premises on Monday night to contact Police.
Anyone with information can contact the Operation Anniston investigation team on (09) 524 1921.
If they would like to provide information anonymously, they can phone Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
ENDS
Jarred Williamson/NZ Police