Widower's death in garage blaze baffles friends and family

File photo / Waihi Leader

Shayne McLean was sitting in his beloved BMW when his garage went up in flames, killing him.

Yesterday, devastated family and friends of the 40-year-old Auckland father were trying to figure out what happened.

Two years after losing his wife and "soulmate", Megan, to leukaemia, Mr McLean had started smiling and was enjoying life again, said the couple's best man, Kelly Kidd.

"He was supposed to be riding to Puhoi on Saturday," he told the Herald. "He was talking about buying a house, seeing his son, everything in the future..."

But early on Saturday morning emergency services were called to the telecommunications specialist's Marcel Pl home in the North Shore suburb of Glenfield to find it ablaze.

Neighbours reported hearing a loud engine revving, followed by a prolonged car horn blast, before the garage caught fire.

Aaron Brown was woken by the motor and heard it roaring for about five minutes.

"It was like they had their foot flat down on the gas. It went for ages until it started spluttering and died," he told the Herald on Sunday.

Soon after, he heard a man and woman having a loud discussion, before the horn sounded.

Police were investigating whether the death was suspicious and would be guided by the results of the post mortem examination today, said Detective Senior Sergeant Kim Libby of the North Shore CIB.

It is the second fire-related death in Glenfield in as many weeks. Last weekend, the body of English immigrant Jacqueline Blackbourn, 43, was found in a burning bedroom in View Rd. A homicide investigation is underway.

Neighbours found Ms Blackbourn's ex-partner Steve Ellis in the backyard in his underwear with burns to his hands yelling: "I couldn't get to her."

He was resting in hospital yesterday and Mr Libby said police hoped to speak to him this week.

Meanwhile Mr McLean's family, friends and former colleagues are left wondering. Several bunches of flowers and a soft toy were propped up against his mailbox yesterday.

Mr Kidd's daughter, Natasha Puketapu, said Mr McLean had been through a rough time, losing Megan to leukaemia in June 2008.

"June was a hard month for him," she said.

She understood Mr McLean's son was making his way from Australia, where he lives.