Detectives believe body found on Auckland’s outskirts is that of missing 22-year-old

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The brother of Grace Millane has paid tribute to the British backpacker as New Zealand police said they believed they had found her body.

Declan Millane uploaded pictures of the two of them embracing alongside the words to You Are My Sunshine.

The tribute came after New Zealand police investigating her death confirmed they had found a body in dense bushland west of Auckland.

DI Scott Beard said the body was believed to be that of the missing 22-year-old British backpacker, but it had yet to be formally identified.

“A short time ago we located a body which we believe to be Grace,” said Beard on Sunday. “The formal identification process will now take place; however, based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days, we believe this is Grace.”

Beard said this was an “unbearable” time for Millane’s family, and “our hearts go out to them”.

Millane’s father, David, arrived in Auckland on Friday and issued an emotional plea for information about his daughter. David has been joined by his brother from England, while the rest of the Millane family remain at home in the UK.

Church services were being held in Grace’s home county of Essex, and thoughts and prayers were also offered for the young traveller at church services around the country in New Zealand. Beard said the police were “pleased to be giving Grace back to her family”, and that even though the Millanes were “devastated” there was some relief that she had been found.

“Any father, any parent in this situation, will struggle, I feel for him. I have a daughter in her 20s, so we are putting a lot of support around him but it’s difficult,” said Beard.

The body was found on Sunday afternoon in forest about 10 metres from a road, Beard said, after 18 police and forensic experts began searching the Waitakere Ranges at lunchtime. The area had been identified as a “location of interest” on Saturday night after a 26-year-old man was charged with Millane’s murder.

A hire car sought in connection with the investigation has also been located in the central North Island town of Taupo, Beard said, and police were appealing for anyone who had seen the vehicle on Monday 3 December in the West Auckland area between the hours of 6.30-9.30am.

The forest is located 20km west of Queen Street in central Auckland, where Millane went missing a week ago, and is a popular recreational spot for walkers. Beard would not be drawn on what condition the body was found in, but said a formal identification and postmortem examination would take place on Monday.

Beard would not give details on how or when Millane had met her alleged killer.

A missing-person search changed to a homicide investigation on Saturday when investigators said they believed Millane, who was last seen alive on 1 December, had been murdered.

Millane was on a year-long round-the-world trip after graduating from university. She had arrived in New Zealand on 20 November, following six weeks in South America.

Millane was captured on CCTV footage with her alleged killer at multiple central Auckland locations on the night of her disappearance, and was last seen alive walking into the CityLife hotel with him at 9.41pm on Saturday. A room at the hotel was searched by police on Friday and Saturday.

A spokeswoman for Tourism New Zealand told local radio that Millane’s murder was sending ripples of unease through the travelling community, with the country previously regarded as a safe place to visit.