KEY POINTS:
Police hope that a post-mortem examination being carried out today on the bloodied body of a recluse found outside his Nelson home will determine the cause of death.
Police are treating the death of the 62-year-old, who has not yet been named, as suspicious but have not yet ruled out an accident.
The man was found lying, covered in blood, face up on the concrete at the front of his Nile St property by a neighbour on Sunday morning. A window at the front door near where he lay was broken.
Detective Sergeant Mark Kaveney, of Nelson, said today it was hoped the man would be formally identified this afternoon by relatives who lived out of town.
Neighbours described the dead man as a recluse.
Nile St resident Jock Howie, who found the body while he was looking for his cat on Sunday, raced to tell his wife to call an ambulance before going back outside and realising the man was dead.
Mr Howie had lived next door to the man for about a year and knew him as Terry.
He said the man kept to himself and often kept his curtains drawn. He lived alone and seemed "pretty frail and vulnerable".
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the man was "completely reclusive".
He had not noticed anything out of the ordinary at the property on Saturday night or Sunday morning.
"I'm a very light sleeper and I heard nothing."
- NZPA
