NEW ZEALAND:New Zealand police yesterday issued an arrest warrant for murder and kidnapping in a case that now involves four countries.
On Thursday last week Nai Xin Xue travelled with his daughter, three-year-old Qian Xun Xue, from Auckland to Melbourne. On Saturday he abandoned Qian in a Melbourne train station and flew to Los Angeles.
The authorities initially nicknamed the child "Pumpkin" because she was wearing a red Pumpkin Patch jacket and was unable to tell police her name. The only words she has spoken since are "yes", "no" and "mummy".
After her identity was established through travel documentation, finding Qian's mother, Anan Liu, in New Zealand was the prime focus. But the case took an even more tragic turn on Wednesday when Ms Liu was found dead in the boot of the family car in Auckland.
The car could be clearly seen in earlier television news footage, but police officers had not searched it, instead sealing it with stickers so they would know if it had been tampered with.
"If we had thought that there was a person or a body in that car it would have been entered earlier," said Auckland police commissioner Howard Broad.
"Had we entered the car without a search warrant we would have risked the evidence that was found . . . in that car having been tainted and not then admissible in court at a later stage."
Police in the US say the delay in issuing a warrant for Mr Xue's arrest has allowed him a head start. "For all we know, he could be in another country," Jason Lee of Los Angeles police department said. "It is very easy to drive to Mexico from LA."
Qian remains in foster care at an undisclosed location in Melbourne and explaining to her what has happened is now "critical", according to developmental psychologist Dr Vickii Jenvey.
"Having lost one parent and being abandoned by the other . . . this is probably the biggest trauma any child can face," said Dr Jenvey, of Melbourne's Monash University.
"How the disappearance of her mother is explained, who explains it and how she is helped to understand what her father did, will be critical.
"She will have a vivid memory, especially of her father leaving her. Early childhood trauma can have lifelong consequences, but that's not to say this will happen to her.
"Children are adaptable and if she is well adjusted and well supported by those around her, then she will probably cope better," Dr Jenvey said.
There have been hundreds of offers to adopt Qian, but her maternal grandmother, Liu Xiao Ping, is preparing to fly in from China to become Qian's legal guardian.
Speaking through an interpreter, Madame Liu told ABC radio she was Qian Xun's only family member.
"She has got nobody apart from me, and Anan was my only child and she is my only daughter. I will do my utmost to bring her up.
"She has called me grandma since she was very young. She has lived in my home in Hunan for over a year. Everyone in my family loves her."