Police are investigating the unexplained death of a person in Pine Hill, Dunedin.
Video / Ben Tomsett
A bride who grew increasingly concerned for her new husband who wasn’t answering his phone, called from India asking a friend of his to check on him, only for them to arrive and find him dead, covered in blood and shards of glass.
The death of Gurjit Singh, 28, who was found dead yesterday morning in the Dunedin suburb of Pine Hill, continues to be treated as unexplained.
Gurjit Singh was found dead outside his Dunedin home in unexplained circumstances yesterday morning. Photo / Facebook
Singh’s father has expressed shock at the news of his son’s death, while his local friends have described him as a good guy who had no enemies or issues with anyone.
About 9am yesterday, police and emergency services, including CIB, ambulance and Fire and Emergency New Zealand, rushed to a Hillary St house which Singh had been renting.
A police cordon remained in place outside the home of Gurjit Singh this morning. Photo / Ben Tomsett
Singh’s body had been found by the friend around 8.30am that day after his wife, whom he married in India about six months prior, expressed concern that she was unable to contact him.
Otago Punjabi Foundation Trust member Narindervir Singh said he had met Singh, a Chorus technician, at a bi-annual temple, and knew him to be a friendly, hard-working and “good guy”.
He had spoken to Singh’s father yesterday, who was in shock at the news of his son’s unexplained death.
“It’s really heartbreaking. His father is in a lot of depression and trauma, because it’s just not understandable,” Narindervir Singh said.
He said he assured Singh’s father the community was there to support the family.
“They are just not sure what to do at this stage.”
Members of Dunedin's Indian community knew Gurjit Singh to be a friendly, hard-working and good guy.
Narindervir Singh said Gurjit Singh had recently rented a house in that area, as his wife was planning to move to New Zealand from India and join him in the next month.
However, about two weeks ago, Narindervir Singh said Singh suspected somebody had tried to break in and his house, and had purchased security cameras due to his concerns of another potential break-in.
He did not get the chance to install them.
Narindervir Singh underscored that Singh had not been concerned for his personal safety, but rather the safety of his belongings.
“I have checked with his friends, they said he’d never had an argument or any ongoing issues with anyone. So he was not having any enemies,” he said.
“He was not having a fear for his life, he was having a fear that somebody will steal his hard-earned things.”
He said that, on Monday morning, a friend of Singh’s got a call from Singh’s wife in India that he was not answering his phone, and so he went to check on him at his house around 8.30am.
“As soon as he got out of his car, he was able to see from that small gate entrance that he was lying on the ground, and he was no more because he could see the open wounds,” said Narindervir Singh.
The death of Gurjit Singh, who was found outside his home in Dunedin's Pine Hill suburb, remains unexplained. Photo / Ben Tomsett
“This was pretty concerning to us because now it’s not like it will be dark at 8.30am - these days. It’s quite often light at 5.30am. At 8.30am it is broad daylight, and I’m wondering that no one passing from that area even bothered to look, or even if they have looked, they didn’t do anything.”
He said the Otago Punjabi Foundation Trust would be meeting later today to decide what the community would do in light of the incident.
Narindervir Singh said that the night before the incident, he met a local man at St Clair Beach, who had lived in Dunedin all his life and told him it was a peaceful town.
“And the next morning, yesterday afternoon, I got this news. I was really shocked,” he said.
Narindervir Singh implored the public that if somebody had seen something, to come forward and assist the police in their investigation.
“A young man has been taken away from a family, a beloved wife who hasn’t started a life yet, she might have a lot of dreams and her partner has gone... If somebody knows something, please come forward and help the police.
“We don’t want our hard-working youngsters going like that. He was a New Zealand resident, so he deserves better than just untold or unrevealed reasons for his death.”
Police are on the scene of a death in Dunedin this morning. Photo / Ben Tomsett
The Indian Weekender reported that a friend of Singh’s had said he had a love marriage just a few months back and he was planning a vacation to Christchurch with his wife, with an Airbnb already booked for the trip.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said this morning that the investigation was ongoing, and police were still working to understand if it was in suspicious circumstances.
Bond said police would be talking to the neighbours, seeing what cameras were in and around the neighbourhood, and conducting scene examinations over the course of today.
A large police presence was present at the scene throughout the day yesterday. Photo / Ben Tomsett
Yesterday, a neighbour who has lived on the street for 22 years told the Herald they were not sure what had happened, but it was usually a quiet street and this incident was unusual.
“Occasionally, we get a few loud motorbikes coming up the hill, but that’s about it,” they said.
A large cordon surrounding the area remains in place.
Yesterday, a large police presence with some armed officers could be seen.
Specialist forensic officers in white boiler suits also arrived to conduct a scene examination.
Police have appealed for the public’s help, asking if anyone “who has any information that may assist police, or saw any unusual activity in Hillary Street between 28 and 29 January 2024 contact 105 and quote the file number 240129/7479”.
Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.
