{"id":380097,"date":"2026-04-15T04:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380097\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:35:08","slug":"gulf-harbour-body-in-bag-case-kaixiao-liu-and-family-set-to-go-to-trial-in-auckland-for-manslaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380097\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf Harbour body in bag case: Kaixiao Liu and family set to go to trial in Auckland for manslaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">The Court of Appeal issued a decision today declining ongoing name suppression to the defendants. It follows a similar decision in the High Court last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">The media remains restricted, however, in reporting details of the appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">A fisherman on Auckland\u2019s Whangapar\u0101oa Peninsula found the plastic-wrapped body in March 2024. <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Kaixiao Liu is charged with manslaughter and kidnapping alongside his wife and both parents.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Kaixiao Liu is charged with manslaughter and kidnapping alongside his wife and both parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Following an exhaustive search that included an Interpol \u201cblack notice\u201d \u2013 a special appeal to international partners seeking information on unidentified bodies \u2013 authorities eventually identified the body as that of 70-year-old Chinese citizen Shulai Wang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Police allege the defendants had kidnapped Wang in Auckland\u2019s North Shore several days before her body washed up.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The body of Shulai Wang, 70, was found floating in the water off Gulf Harbour, North Auckland, in 2024. Photo \/ Police\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The body of Shulai Wang, 70, was found floating in the water off Gulf Harbour, North Auckland, in 2024. Photo \/ Police<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">A fuller picture of the allegations against the family is expected when the group\u2019s trial is scheduled to begin in the High Court at Auckland on May 25. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">All four have pleaded not guilty. They have opted to represent themselves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/craig-kapitan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Craig Kapitan<\/a> is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Court of Appeal issued a decision today declining ongoing name suppression to the defendants. It follows a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,51,53893,7800,1121,13239,2109,44192,2082,1874,29419,22220,30699,20589,16420,78,27705,117237,197723,156316,15035,4486,111,43,139,1536,69,11325,10715,1551,61,54,1533,102,5816,33447],"class_list":["post-380097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-bag","tag-body","tag-case","tag-charged","tag-family","tag-floating","tag-for","tag-found","tag-go","tag-going","tag-gulf","tag-harbour","tag-human","tag-in","tag-instead","tag-interfering","tag-kaixiao","tag-liu","tag-manslaughter","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-plastic","tag-remains","tag-set","tag-to","tag-trial","tag-will","tag-with","tag-womans","tag-wrapped"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}