KEY POINTS:
Police have identified a young man whose body was found with facial injuries in a Christchurch park this morning and have scaled up their inquiries to a homicide investigation.
The 16-year-old arrived in Christchurch from Dunedin just last Sunday, Detective Inspector Greg Williams said at a news conference late this afternoon.
"We were able to notify his family this afternoon," he said.
However, police have yet to make a formal identification and expected to release the youth's name and a photograph of him later tonight.
Mr Williams said police were trying to trace his movements since he arrived in the city.
"Now we know who he is, our next focus is to determine where he's been and who he's been associating with," he said.
Mr Williams wouldn't say why the youth had come to Christchurch, but did say he'd been to school here at some stage. His parents lived in Dunedin and knew their son was in Christchurch.
The youth hadn't been living near where his body was found in Auburn Park, a small neighbourhood reserve in Upper Riccarton suburb.
Police want to speak to a man who called St John for an ambulance at 5.47am.
Mr Williams said the man told ambulance staff there was a body in Auburn Park and that he would stay until paramedics arrived.
"They didn't do that and a focus for us also is to locate that person and speak to them," he said.
Police have cordoned a phone box near a dairy and block of shops in Riccarton Rd, about 800m from where the body was found.
The body appeared to have been in the park overnight.
Mr Williams said police wanted to know what was happening in the area last night and urged anyone in Auburn Park, a BP service station opposite the park in Riccarton Rd, or the nearby Church Corner area, to contact them.
"We've already had some calls from the public assisting us in that respect," he said.
A team of about 30 police was canvassing residents in houses surrounding the park and seeking any security camera footage from the area. More staff may be brought into the investigation tomorrow.
Auburn Park, a small grassy reserve with only two entrances, runs between Auburn Ave and busy Riccarton Rd, with dozens of properties backing on to it.
Mr Williams said an initial examination of the youth's body indicated he'd been "assaulted in some way" but the cause of his death had yet to be established.
The youth's body was expected to be removed from the scene tonight for a post-mortem tomorrow morning.
Police were continuing their scene examination and Mr Williams said he expected "we'll be there for some days yet".
- NZPA
