Police are still awaiting the results of post-mortem examinations and tests to identify the human remains found at an address in the Auckland suburb of Manurewa a week ago.
Police at the scene late last week. Photo: RNZ / Jonty Dine
Counties Manukau district crime manager detective inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua said it was a complex homicide investigation and it would take time to piece together the facts.
Newshub has reported the family at the house had brought home a trailer-load of items, won at an auction for abandoned goods in a storage unit, without realising what was inside.
Police said the family were not involved in the incident and they were subject to some stress because of the incident.
Vaaelua asked that their privacy be respected.
Storage unit contents are auctioned off as a last resort when customers abandon goods and stop paying the fees.
TradeMe runs online auctions for storage unit contents but its head of trust and safety, Lisa Kerr, said they were uncommon.
"For context, there are currently approximately five listings for storage unit contents onsite. To put that into perspective, we have almost seven million live listings across Trade Me," she said.
Kerr said the platform could not comment further because it did not want to interfere with the police investigation.