An Auckland family charged with interfering with human remains after a woman’s body wrapped in plastic was found floating off Gulf Harbour will instead be going to trial next month for manslaughter.

Kaixiao Liu, with wife Lanyue Xiao and mother Xiuyun Li, were all initially named one month after the first set of charges were laid in June 2024 following a high-profile international investigation.

Despite widespread media coverage already identifying the family, they were granted interim suppression again in November that year when manslaughter and kidnapping charges were filed. They had not been named in the media since, until now.

A fourth defendant – Kaixiao Liu’s father, Jingui Liu – also received name suppression after he was charged last year.

Kaixiao Liu and his wife, Lanyue Xiao, appeared in the North Shore District Court on July 1, 2024, charged with tampering with the body of a then-unidentified woman found in the water off the North Auckland suburb of Gulf Harbour. Photo / Dean Purcell

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.

The media remains restricted, however, in reporting details of the appeal.

A fisherman on Auckland’s Whangaparāoa Peninsula found the plastic-wrapped body in March 2024.

Kaixiao Liu is charged with manslaughter and kidnapping alongside his wife and both parents.

Following an exhaustive search that included an Interpol “black notice” – a special appeal to international partners seeking information on unidentified bodies – authorities eventually identified the body as that of 70-year-old Chinese citizen Shulai Wang.

Police allege the defendants had kidnapped Wang in Auckland’s North Shore several days before her body washed up.

The body of Shulai Wang, 70, was found floating in the water off Gulf Harbour, North Auckland, in 2024. Photo / Police

A fuller picture of the allegations against the family is expected when the group’s trial is scheduled to begin in the High Court at Auckland on May 25.

All four have pleaded not guilty. They have opted to represent themselves.

Craig Kapitan 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.