Chinese mother killed in vicious attack in NZ

WELLINGTON -- The New Zealand Police have launched a homicide investigation after a 37-year-old Chinese woman was killed after dropping her two children at school in a Wellington suburb.

The body of Rongmei Fan, also known as "Mei", was found in her home in the suburb of Miramar late on Sunday, said a statement from Wellington police on Wednesday.

A post mortem on Tuesday confirmed that Fan had multiple injuries consistent with a violent and brutal attack.

She was last seen on Friday dropping her two children off at their local school and speaking with a teacher, and police are appealing for further sightings of her or any unusual occurrences in the neighborhood.

"It is clear that this was a brutal and vicious attack that has taken the life of a young mother," Detective Senior Sergeant John van den Heuvel said in the statement.

On Nov 5, the New Zealand Police marked the first anniversary of the unsolved murder of another Chinese woman, Cissy Chen, who vanished from her home in the north of Auckland.

Police renewed their appeal for information on Chen, whose body has never been found.

Over the past 12 months, specialist search teams had combed several locations where Chen's body could have been buried.