Mystery acquaintance identified in unexplained Wellington death

Police plan to talk to a man today who shared a taxi with Graham John Alexander days before he died on January 2.

Mr Alexander, 49, was found suffering of head injuries at his Petone home on New Year's Day and he died the next day. Police are treating his death as "unexplained".

Yesterday it was revealed Mr Alexander had been involved in a scuffle in central Wellington on December 23, had fallen and hit his head and was then taken away in a taxi by another man.

Detective Inspector Rod Drew, the head of Operation Dragster, told NZPA that man had been identified and police hoped to speak to him today.

The taxi drove the man and Mr Alexander to Johnsonville after the scuffle -- about 3am near Molly Malone's Bar on Courtenay Pl -- and Mr Alexander stayed at the man's place for several days before returning to Petone on December 27.

Mr Drew confirmed Mr Alexander fell rather than was pushed to the ground during the scuffle which left him with a bloody head.

The men were seen in Taranaki St near Zibibo bar and near the corner of Taranaki and Courtenay Pl about 3.15am.

Asked if the pair were friends Mr Drew said: "We believe they are known to one another."

Mr Drew said police had considerable footage of Mr Alexander and his friends from security cameras.

Mr Alexander had been part of a group of about six friends that had met up at a bar in Lower Hutt before heading into Wellington. They went to several bars in the Courtenay Pl area and people came and went from the group.

"They were drinking and merry making like everybody else before Christmas," Mr Drew said.

Mr Alexander had a few drinks; "he'd had a good night".

Blood and fingerprint samples from various locations were being tested for comparison with other samples held by police.

Mr Drew said while the scuffle was "interesting" it was only one part of the story.

"We are still describing it as an unexplained death. We're going through and gathering a lot of information. It changed yesterday because we saw this scuffle... that's really interesting to us but of course that is only one factor," he said.

"We've tracked a lot of his movements and people he's spoken to so we're putting that together with the medical evidence and the scientific evidence to come up with a final solution or decision and we won't get that until we get a lot of those results back."

A post-mortem examination on the body found Mr Alexander, a drag racing enthusiast, had had a skull fracture and consequent brain injury.

- NZPA