
A 26-year-old man has appeared in court in New Zealand charged with the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane.
Miss
Millane, 22, disappeared in Auckland on 1 December - police ended their
search on Sunday after finding a body in the outskirts of the city.The man, who cannot be named, is due back in court next month.
Court documents showed he had been living at the Citylife Hotel on Queen Street in central Auckland, which is where Miss Millane was last seen.
The judge acknowledged Miss Millane's family's grief "must be desperate".
Documents also showed police believe the University of Lincoln graduate from Essex was killed between 1 December and 2 December.
At a news conference, the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there was an "overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country".
"On behalf on New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family," she said. "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that."
The body - which has not yet been formally identified but the police believe to be Miss Millane's - was found "about 10 metres" off Scenic Drive, a countryside road outside the city, Det Insp Scott Beard said.
On Sunday, Declan Millane, one of Miss Millane's brothers, shared a collection of photographs of his sister online, alongside the lyrics to the chorus of the song You Are My Sunshine.
The University of Lincoln, from which Miss Millane graduated earlier this year, paid tribute and said its community was "deeply saddened".
Miss Millane had been travelling alone in New Zealand for two weeks, following a six-week group trip through South America.
The announcement on Saturday by police that Miss Millane was "no longer alive" followed a review of CCTV footage, the forensic examination of a hotel where she was last seen, and the discovery of a vehicle.
Det Insp Beard issued an appeal for anybody who saw a red Toyota Corolla rental car, which had been hired from a company in Auckland, between 06:30 and 09:30 local time on Monday 3 December.
Police said her family were "devastated" after being told the missing persons case had become a murder investigation.
Speaking at a news conference in Auckland on Friday, Grace's father, David Millane, described his daughter as "lovely" and "family-orientated".
He added that his daughter had been "bombarding us with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures" before she went missing.
New Zealanders have been expressing sadness at the news. Ruth Dyson, an MP for Port Hills in New Zealand's Parliament, was among those who offered condolences on social media, tweeting that her country is grieving with Miss Millane's family.
Miss Millane had been travelling alone in New Zealand for two weeks, following a six-week group trip through South America.
The announcement on Saturday by police that Miss Millane was "no longer alive" followed a review of CCTV footage, the forensic examination of a hotel where she was last seen, and the discovery of a vehicle.
Det Insp Beard issued an appeal for anybody who saw a red Toyota Corolla rental car, which had been hired from a company in Auckland, between 06:30 and 09:30 local time on Monday 3 December.
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