Police are investigating after a body found was in a burned-out car in a Havelock North riverside carpark. Video / Neil Reid
Police are still trying to identify a woman whose body was found in a burned out car in Havelock North this week.
Detective Inspector Dave De Lange said police will have a community bus at the River Road Recreational Reserve on the weekend open to speak with anyone who may have been in the area last weekend and have information they think may be relevant to police.
"We are still looking at missing person cases in the wider area to see if these are relevant to our investigation. At this point, they have not been."
On Thursday two floral tributes were laid at the scene where the women's body was discovered, a popular car park on the outskirts of the town.
De Lange said the investigation was ongoing and identifying the woman remained a priority.
Police on Tuesday investigating the scene where a woman's body was found in a burned out car in the River Rd carpark, Havelock North, on Monday. Photo / Neil Reid
"Forensic testing and formal identification procedures are under way but this is expected to take some time," De Lange said.
"We have been carrying out an area canvass and reviewing CCTV footage as we seek to piece together what has led to this incident.
"We want to find out who this woman is and speak with her family. This will be devastating news for them and we will be wrapping support around then once we know who they are."
On Tuesday police admitted they investigated the abandoned, burnt-out vehicle with a woman's body inside two days before it was found by a member of the public, but no investigation was opened because they assumed the body was the remains of an animal.
The first report of the incident from a member of the public was of a "dead animal" on the vehicle's floor.
The vehicle was first discovered on Saturday morning in the River Rd carpark, on the outskirts of Havelock North and near some of Hawke's Bay's most prestigious vineyards.
The car remained there over the weekend, covered in police tape.
Eastern Police District Commander Jeanette Park said staff initially attended the scene after a call from a member of the public about 10am on Saturday.
"The condition of the vehicle and debris from the fire meant staff did not immediately identify the human remains."
On Monday a dog walker took a closer look at it and made the grisly discovery of a woman's body in the wreck, alerting police to again take a closer look at it.
The dog walker said police who attended initially told him the remains were of a sheep.
"I started picking up all the melted bits of aluminium around the car. As I was doing that I noticed inside the car what to me looked like a corpse," the Hastings man told the Herald.
De Lange said earlier that police are still treating the death as unexplained while they wait for post mortem and forensic testing results and are keeping an open mind as to what has occurred.
