Murder investigation launched after body found in ute tray on Gold Coast

Investigations into the disappearance of a teenage girl led police to find a body "stuffed in a barrel" on the tray of a ute abandoned by a driver who had fled officers hours earlier.

Detectives have released information about a 34-year-old man who may be able to help with their investigation into the death.

Police want to speak to 34-year-old Zlatko Sikorsky.Credit: QPS

Zlatko Sikorsky is believed to be travelling in a silver 2014 Holden Commodore with a sunroof and Queensland registration 966 WKB.

Police have urged members of the public to contact them if they see the man but not to approach him.

A murder investigation and manhunt continued after the grisly discovery near a mobile home park on the Gold Coast on Wednesday night.

Larissa Beilby, 16, was last seen at Kempster Road at Sandgate on June 15 and had not made contact with family or friends since June 18.

A media alert sent out by police on June 26 said she might have been in the company of a young Caucasian man.

Police were appealing for public assistance to help locate Larissa Beilby, 16, reported missing from Sandgate since June 15.Credit: Queensland Police Media.

As officers arrived at the address, the occupant fled in a black ute, which police tracked to the Gold Coast suburb of Stapylton. Police found the body in the abandoned vehicle.

"The car was smashed up, the glass was broken. It was pretty bad. Would you feel safe if someone was stuffed in a barrel next to you?" a resident of the mobile park told Seven News.

Another resident told Nine News the car looked like it had been "trashed".

"I didn't know there was a body. I was looking at the car and I didn’t know that the barrel actually had a body in it," he said.

"It is pretty full on."

The vehicle police were searching for over the body discovery.Credit: Queensland Police Service

Neighbour Jacqueline Anthony said she was inside vacuuming when she heard screaming and noticed police on the street outside on Wednesday afternoon.

"I heard screaming outside but I didn't think much of it," she said.

"I mentioned to my husband there was a lot of police outside."

Her husband Anthony went onto his neighbour’s patio and said he could see the black ute and a few officers around it.

"They were just lifting the tarp and having a look, from my angle I couldn’t see too much," he said.

"A detective told us there is a body there."

Mr Anthony said he had seen the ute a few times in the past few weeks.

A woman who lives near where the ute was abandoned at the mobile home park told the ABC several men fled in a silver Commodore.

"One of our neighbours, he's seen the car parked up there and he went to go and close the door. That's when he noticed there was gunshot shells and knuckle busters [sic] inside the vehicle," a woman, identified only as Sharon, told ABC Radio Brisbane.

"So he rang the cops straight away because he'd actually touched the vehicle."

An investigation centre had been set up at Logan Central Police Station, with detectives from Logan, Gold Coast and the Homicide Squad involved.

"We’re very early in the investigation ... We have a lot of information that’s coming in and a lot of information that we’re processing," acting Superintendent Mark White said.

Police tape is seen at a house in Buccan where police had been investigating a missing person.Credit: AAP/Darren England

"We are conducting some very extensive inquiries in relation to any person associated with that car and also the address at Buccan."

Acting Superintendent White said the investigation was at a "critical stage" and the forensic examination of the crime scene was expected to continue for days.

Anyone who saw the Commodore was urged to phone triple zero immediately and not approach anyone inside the vehicle.

With AAP