Taranaki family finds dumped body in garage

A murdered man's body has been found in a garage in a quiet New Plymouth suburb, carefully wrapped up and dumped there - to the shock of the young family who live on the property.

Mystery surrounds the killing, and police have begun a homicide investigation.

They don't know who the man is. They don't know where, or how, he died. They don't know why his body was secretly moved through New Plymouth's streets to be dumped in a seemingly randomly selected garage.

All they are certain of, at this stage, is that he was murdered.

Police were called by one of the residents, who found the body in the double garage of the Drake St home just before 8pm on Friday.

Detective senior sergeant Grant Coward said the body had been concealed, and the discovery had shocked the residents.

"They go out to their garage and find a package and see a body in it," he said.

Police had no leads on the man's identity, he said, and could describe him only as middle-aged and of medium to solid build.

"The family that live there found a body in their garage but they can't help identify who he is," said Coward. "The body appears to have only been there for 12 to 24 hours."

Yesterday afternoon, 20 detectives, scientists and scene-of-crime officers were examining the area and conducting a full scene reconstruction.

A check of the National Missing Person database has not thrown up any leads.

"We can't determine [how he died]. We are hopeful that we can identify him forensically today through fingerprints," said Coward.

The man's body remained in the garage last night.

Neighbour Muriel Richards said the family who lived at the address were a young couple with three children, who had moved into the rental property in the past couple of years. "It was all quiet yesterday before the police came. There was nothing unusual," she said.

Detectives last night were canvassing along Drake St and talking to neighbours.