KEY POINTS:
Police investigating the death of a 16-year-old Dunedin youth whose body was found with facial injuries in a Christchurch suburban park want to identify a group seen drinking there late on Tuesday night.
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Wormald said today the group comprised Maori or Polynesians who were reported to be socialising in the Auburn Reserve in upper Riccarton suburb.
"We believe the victim was associating with them in and around the park," Mr Wormald told NZPA.
Police were asking them or anyone who noticed the group near the park, a nearby bottle store and supermarket in Riccarton Rd or a BP service station opposite one of the two entrances to the reserve to contact them urgently.
They are also still trying to trace a man who called for an ambulance from a phone booth about 600m from the park.
The man called St John at 5.47am yesterday, saying there was a body in the park. He told dispatchers he would stay until an ambulance arrived, but disappeared.
Police cordoned a phone box outside a dairy and block of shops in Riccarton Rd yesterday for forensic examination.
Mr Wormald said tracking the caller was a main focus in the homicide investigation.
The youth's body was removed from the park last night and a post mortem was scheduled this morning. Police are not expected to release his name until the post mortem has been completed.
Police today said the youth had been living in Christchurch for about two months. Incorrect information yesterday had him arriving in the city just last Sunday, but Mr Wormald said there was some confusion over when he moved to an address in northeastern Christchurch.
Police today were continuing a scene examination at the grassy suburban reserve that runs between Auburn Ave and busy Riccarton Rd and has dozens of properties backing on to it.
An area canvass would also continue today.
Homicide investigation head Detective Inspector Greg Williams said yesterday an initial examination of the youth's body indicated he'd been "assaulted in some way" but the cause of death had yet to be established.
- NZPA
