[1] Her remains were found south west of Auckland at Sunset Beach, Port Waikato, on 19 May 2012 after being exposed by erosion of a sandbank.
At the time of her disappearance, Furlong was due to testify as a witness for the prosecution in two separate legal cases – one involving gang members accused of an assault, and the other relating to a businessman charged with brutal attacks on sex workers.
A year after the remains were found, Detective Inspector Mark Benefield said that Furlong's ex-partner, who reported her missing on 28 May 1993, some of her former associates and some of those involved in the court cases, had declined to speak to police.
[11] In August 2019, a parole board hearing was held for Wayne Michael McGrath, who is nearing the end of a 5-year, 4-month prison sentence for raping Furlong's friend Amanda Wolfe.
Before her disappearance, Furlong and her boyfriend were in a dispute with McGrath over a vehicle which ended in a violent confrontation in west Auckland.