Post mortem for body discovered on road

Police were today investigating the circumstances behind a crash in which a pedestrian was killed at a farming locality south of Auckland and his body taken to the local marae.

Police were alerted about 4am to the incident at Te Kohanga, near Tuakau.

Acting Senior Sergeant Adam Pyne said how the pedestrian, a man in his 20s, died was still being established.

"It's a little bit confusing as to what exactly happened," he said. "But what we can gather is that it's a vehicle crash."

Mr Pyne said it had not yet been confirmed who took the man's body to the marae.

Police and Maori liaison officers were talking to kaumatua (elders) and others on the marae.


Later this morning Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone said the cause of the man's death was still being confirmed.


"We just have to wait and see what the post-mortem tells us," he said.


"Once we know that, we will know a bit more about where we are going with this."


He said a traffic accident was "one possibility".


- NZPA