QUEENSLAND Police has released a photo of a man they believe may be able to assist with their investigation into the body of a teenage girl found in a barrel on the back of a ute.

Police are looking for a man who fled from a property at Buccan in Logan when they went to make inquiries about missing person Larissa Beilby, 16, around 1.30pm on Wednesday.

The man fled in a black ute with a barrel loaded onto the tray covered by a tarp. Police were able to track the vehicle to a mobile home park at Stapylton, 20 minutes away, where officers found a badly decomposed body inside the barrel. The man was able to get away again in another car.

In a press conference today, Queensland Police would not confirm the body in the barrel was that of Larissa Beilby but did admit she was “associated” with the wanted man.

“I don’t know the relationship, we know that they’re associated but we don’t know the exact relationship between them,” Acting Detective Superintendent Mark White told reporters.

Detective Acting Supt. White said the man who fled in the ute was at the centre of the murder investigation but that it was possible other people were involved.

“It’s hard to say whether we’re looking at one person, or more persons,” he told reporters.

Detectives today released the identity of a 34-year-old man they believe may able to assist with their active inquiries into the case.

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

Police have warned members of the public not to approach the man and said they believed he “had access to firearms”.

“We consider him dangerous,” Acting Detective Supt. White said.

Police believe he is travelling alone in the Gold Coast and Logan areas.

Police earlier told news.com.au they found a female’s body in a barrel on the black ute after searching the vehicle. Acting Detective Supt. White would not confirm reports that officers had found bullets and knuckle dusters in the ute Sikorsky allegedly left behind.

“A further search of the vehicle uncovered a deceased person,” police said in a statement.

“Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.”

The body was so badly decomposed police warned it could take a number of days to formally identify her.

A Queensland Police spokesman told news.com.au that Ms Beilby was still missing.

Police appealed for information regarding her whereabouts earlier this week.

In a statement released on Tuesday, police said Ms Beilby was “last seen at an address on Kempster Road and has not contacted family or friends since June 18”.

“She is described as caucasian, is approximately 168cm tall, of a medium build with blonde hair, hazel eyes and a nose piercing,” the statement read.

“Initial investigations indicate she may be in the company of a caucasian man in his late teens.”

When questioned why Queensland Police had taken more than a week to send out a release appealing for information about Larissa, Acting Detective Superintendent Mark White said officers received a large number of reports.

“We get a number of missing person reports, around 130 a week. Out of respect for the family of missing persons I’m not going to go into that,” he said.

On Thursday evening, Supt White told reporters that police were treating the death as a homicide and an investigation centre had been established at Logan Central police station.

“Police are still working to positively identify the deceased person located in the back of a ute in Stapylton,” he said.

“I’m not going to speculate on any particular aspect of it because it’s at a real critical stage. “We have a lot of information that’s coming in, a lot of information we’re processing.”

Detectives are forensically examining the ute and have started “extensive inquiries” in relation to anyone associated with it.

Supt White declined to go into detail about the person being sought over the matter.

“We don’t know the identity of this person and we may not know that until tomorrow or possibly the next day,” he said.

“As you can appreciate, there’s a fairly intensive forensic examination that is occurring as we speak and will continue to occur possibly for the next 24 to 48 hours.”

A witness told Nine News that things “just spiralled out of control” when the man fled the scene.

“I thought someone was on the run then I found out it was a body in the barrel,” he said.

Another witness, Chris Anthony, saw the damaged vehicle parked strangely at the property. “The car was just there. I didn’t know there was a body in there,” he told the Seven network.

“The car was pretty smashed up, the glass was broken. It was pretty bad.”

Resident Damien Smith has told the Gold Coast Bulletin the ute had “like a burnt bonnet on it or something wrong with the front end”.

“It was strange. Then all the police turn up and we’re thinking, what’s going on here? We don’t normally find dead bodies here. There’s only three or four houses here on the street.”

Police have urged the public not to approach the occupant(s) and instead call police on 000.