Detectives say they’re baffled by the murders of a mother and her daughter, whose bodies were found five years and thousands of kilometres apart. 

The remains of a young girl found stuffed in a suitcase on the side of the road in outback South Australia in September have been identified as two-year-old Khandaylce Kiara Pearce.

Her mother is Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson – who was found dead in the infamous Belanglo State Forest in 2010.

Both were reported missing in the Northern Territory in 2009.

Investigators said the circumstances and time of the deaths are yet to be determined.