Abandoned girl sparks global hunt

[SunWuKong]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7000253.stm

Abandoned girl sparks global hunt

Police in Australia, New Zealand and the US are searching for the parents of a three-year-old girl abandoned at a train station in southern Australia.

Qian Xun Xue - known as Pumpkin until she was identified on Monday - was found in Melbourne on Saturday.

Australian police believe her father, Xue Nai Zin, fled to the US after dumping the toddler.

In New Zealand, police say they fear for the girl's mother, Annie Xue, who has not been seen since 10 September.

They found a car belonging to 27-year-old Mrs Xue, a Chinese national also known as Anan Liu, at the airport in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, on Monday night.

Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said police had been in contact with the family over incidents of domestic violence in the last year.

Police were "concerned that Anan has not been able to contact us in relation to her daughter", he said.

They had searched four addresses, including the Xue family home in Mount Roskill, Auckland, he added.

Interpol has also joined the search efforts.

Security footage

Staff at Southern Cross railway station in Australia's second largest city found the girl crying and alone on Saturday.

They named her Pumpkin after the brand of clothing she was wearing at the time.

Security cameras showed Mr Xue, 54, walking from the train platform wheeling a suitcase, leaving the girl behind. Just hours later, Mr Xue fled to the US city of Los Angeles, Australian police say.

Mr Xue - a Chinese-language magazine publisher who had lived in New Zealand for 10 years - had arrived in Australia with his daughter from Auckland on Thursday.

The girl is now in the care of a foster family in the Australian state of Victoria.

She will stay with the family for at least three weeks as the hunt for her parents continues, Department of Human Services (DHS) spokesman Brendan Ryan said.

"She was distressed early in the week when she was asking for mummy but [the foster family] have done a cracking job in supporting her and comforting her," Mr Ryan said.

"She's sleeping okay, she's eating okay and she's quite fond of Vegemite on toast."

[AngryABCGirl]

I'm pretty pessimistically sure the mother is dead.

[VV o n g B a]

what was feared is true... woman's body was found in a car trunk.
----

MELBOURNE - Police searching for the mother of a toddler believed to have been abandoned by her father at a train station in Australia found a woman's body locked in the trunk of a car at the family's New Zealand home Wednesday.

The body was not immediately identified but the car was registered to the father of the 3-year-old girl, and the inquiry into the mother's whereabouts is now a homicide investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said.

full story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20829266/

[didu]

this mofo would get a bullet in the head if he had committed these heinous crimes in China.

[SunWuKong]

'Pumpkin' handed to grandmother (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7011713.stm)

[Banana]

Why do I feel the overwhelming desire to pinch this girl's cheeks and hug her? Her story makes me a sad panda.

[Adaon]

She's adorable. I feel for her, losing mama so young. Dad has to get a harsher punishment than running from the law and a slap on the wrist . . .

Side note: Grandma doesn't even look as old as Pumpkin's dad. Interesante.

[eos]

abandon the dad in a lion's den.

[Moong Joong]

The girl's mother who was murdered is half the age of the fugitive father, so i'm not surprised the grandmother looks about the same age.

[lunarmoon]

Honestly I feel this is proving how peoples' rational thinking is degrading. Also, shows how people will quickly turn to violence over finding a better way to solve problems. However, more then that it's the fact children end up being the biggest victim in domestic disputes. Honestly people think about the damage being done to mental stability of the children.

[KenTsui]

sad

[YelloFello]

I have some evil thoughts on what I would want happen to that father. :rolleyes: :tongue:

Forgive me, Lord.

[raacluse]

(First, excerpts from US Associated Press story for background. Followed by Australian Associated Press story for more complete coverage.)


New Zealand Murder Suspect Caught in Ga.
T. WATKINS / AP / 28 Feb 08

LOS ANGELES — A Chinese-language magazine publisher accused of killing his wife in New Zealand and abandoning his daughter at an Australian train station was captured Thursday in an Atlanta suburb, authorities said.

Nai Yin Xue was caught after residents of a Chamblee, Ga., apartment recognized him from pictures published in the media and called police, U.S. Marshals Service Chief Inspector Thomas Hession said...

...New Zealand authorities issued kidnap and murder warrants for Xue.
He was accused of killing his wife, Anan Liu, in September in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. He then flew to Australia and abandoned his 3-year-old daughter at a Melbourne train station, a scene recorded by a security camera.

By the time Liu's body was found in the trunk of a car, Xue had flown to the U.S., authorities said...

...Xue is the publisher of a Chinese-language magazine in New Zealand and a well-known figure in the ethnic Chinese community in Auckland. DeMores said he did not know whether Xue had an attorney.

His daughter, Qian Xun Xue, is now living in China with relatives. She had been nicknamed "Pumpkin" after the make of clothing she was wearing when found abandoned and crying for her mother at the train station.

=- =- =- =- =-

Pumpkin's fugitive father Nai Yin Xue captured in US
Australian Associated Press / 29 Feb 08

New Zealand fugitive Nai Yin Xue was forced to the ground and tied up with his own clothes in a dramatic citizens' arrest in the United States.
Xue was subdued and tied up by members of the Chinese American community in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, after they recognised his picture in a local Chinese newspaper.

The capture of 53-year-old Xue, suspected of killing his wife in New Zealand and dumping his child in Melbourne, follows a massive search and widespread publicity in the US over the case.

US Marshals chief Tom Hession said Xue had befriended people at an apartment in the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee in recent days.
But when his new friends saw media stories about the fugitive, they took the law into their own hands, added Marc Johnson, the chief of police in Chamblee.
A group of six at the apartment complex tied Xue's legs up with his trousers and bound his hands with his belt while they waited for police to arrive.
By the time officers arrived, they were sitting on Xue, whose trousers were pulled down around his ankles, police said.
Xue, a self-described martial arts expert, was unable to fight off the men as they subdued him, Hession said.

Xue is suspected of murdering his wife, Anan Liu, in Auckland last September and stuffing her body in the boot of a car.
He is also suspected of dumping his three-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue, nicknamed Pumpkin, at a Melbourne train station before fleeing to Los Angeles and disappearing.

Widespread media coverage in the southern US states of Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas proved to be Xue's downfall.
"They discovered he was a wanted man," Hession, speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles, said of those who captured Xue.
"They had pictures of him from newspapers and from the America's Most Wanted website."

At first, Xue denied he was the fugitive in the press reports, but police discovered he had his New Zealand driver's licence in his wallet.

Marc Johnson, the chief of police from Chamblee, said police received a call from a local apartment complex where six people recognised Xue from a picture in a local Chinese newspaper.
Xue had shaved his head in an attempt to throw US authorities and unsuspecting locals off his trail.
The US Marshals had been hot on Xue's trail in recent weeks with confirmed sightings in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama before the arrest.
Xue is being held in an Atlanta jail and it is unknown whether he plans to fight extradition to New Zealand.

He has been charged with being a fugitive and for being wanted in New Zealand.
If Xue does fight extradition, it could mean a court battle in the US that could take more than two years.
New Zealand police are more optimistic, saying they expect Nai Yin Xue will be returned to Auckland within weeks.

Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said under a treaty Xue should be extradited to New Zealand in about 45 days, but paperwork was almost complete, which could speed things up.
"Our information regarding extradition is it is approximately 45 days but we ... are well ahead of the game in terms of the extradition process," Scott said.
"We have prepared an extradition file which is almost ready to go so we are well ahead of the game," he said.

Scott did not rule out the possibility of Xue being returned to New Zealand as early as next week, if the extradition was not contested.
"We just have to wait and see. I think it is just best to say that we will work closely with US authorities and will work out when he will be back in New Zealand in due course," he said.

But Xue had legal options in the United States before he was extradited.
"The authorities will have to follow due process in the United States so we will be guided by US authorities as to what his future is," Scott said.
There are suggestions that if Xue fights extradition it may be months or even years before he returns to New Zealand.

Scott said it was possible there could be complications in the return of Xue.
"It is possible, but I think we are very happy with what our position is, especially this morning," he said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Xue's capture was important to communities in her country.
Clark thanked both New Zealand and American authorities for their efforts in apprehending Xue.

"This is very, very important news for the family and for our communities here in New Zealand. The killing shocked our country. It left a child an orphan and it is just so important that this man has been apprehended," Clark told Radio New Zealand.

The maternal grandmother of Qian Xun, who now has custody of the girl in China, Liu Xiao Ping, was contacted about the news of the arrest by Pansy Wong from New Zealand's National Party.

Wong told AAP the woman said that nothing would bring her daughter back.
"Madam Liu's initial reaction is that she is determined to put this tragedy behind her. She will leave the authorities to deal with the justice. She wants to turn a new page," Wong said.

[Arex]

...New Zealand authorities issued kidnap and murder warrants for Xue.When I read this excerpt, I thought this meant NZ authorities put a hit out on him. Haha.

Glad to hear they caught this mofo.

[SunWuKong]

convicted of murder. but i can't find what the sentencing is.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/pumpkins-dad-guilty-of-murder-20090620-crlv.html