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Police have named the man who was found dead at a party in New Plymouth on the weekend.
He was Peri Niwa, 31, and police, who are treating the death as suspicious, have launched a homicide inquiry.
Mr Niwa's body was found by police shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward said a post-mortem examination is being carried out on the body.
"It is known that a group of people were drinking together on Blagdon Road and that there appears to have been some sort of confrontation between those people and another group," Mr Coward said.
"After that confrontation at least one person then ran from Blagdon Road to the Squire Place address. Mr Niwa did not live at the Squire Place house but knew the residents."
Residents in the Squire Place neighbourhood said they were woken by a confrontation they say started just after midnight.
"I just heard a man out of his tree," one neighbour told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday.
"He had completely lost it, screaming and yelling. I thought they were only having a fight and didn't take much notice. The next thing I heard was a lady screaming and the next thing I know police had arrived."
She said the house where Mr Niwa's body was found was rented by a "whole host of boys" who she thought all worked at the Motunui methanol plant.
Mr Coward would not say what injuries Mr Niwa had suffered.
Nor would he say if police were looking for a weapon.
"It's a suspicious death. We are treating it as a homicide," he said.
Members of Mr Niwa's family kept a vigil outside the Squire Place property until his body was removed.
Friends said he worked seven days a week and described him as a "workaholic" who was never in any trouble.
Mr Coward said anyone with information should contact police.
- NZ HERALD STAFF, NZPA
