Police investigate suspicious death

— Waterloo Region police were scouring for evidence outside a Forest Heights-area townhouse and canvassing neighbours after a man was found dead early Sunday morning.

Investigators say that the 45year-old man’s death at a townhouse on Elm Ridge Drive in Kitchener is being treated as suspicious.

The man was found dead after a 911 call shortly after 1 a.m., police say.

Neighbour Perry Randall said two police officers were at his door at about 1:15 a.m., trying to enter, after mistaking his unit as the one the call came from.

“I didn’t hear anything, and I was awake. We were surprised,” Randall said.

“It’s disconcerting, if it is something serious.”

An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday morning, and investigators were hoping to have results later in the day.

Randall said their neighbour moved in about a year ago and usually kept to himself.

They believed several teenagers and a woman also lived in the same unit, but they didn’t know the man well.

“We hope to have a cause of death by end of day.

“We’re hoping the autopsy will give us some answers,” said Insp. Mike Haffner, an executive officer with the Waterloo Region police.

“We’re still trying to find out what happened here.”

On Sunday afternoon, a police officer was stationed in the hallway outside the ground-floor unit.

A police cruiser was parked by the back patio, which was littered with bicycles and pizza boxes. A black blanket was strung up in the sliding door to partially cover the scene.

It’s still very early in the investigation, Haffner cautioned, and police want to speak with anyone who might have information.

“If anyone observed any unusual behaviour or heard anything unusual between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. (Sunday morning), please give us a call or speak to one of our investigators on the scene,” Haffner said.

It might be a few days before police are able to clear the scene, he added.

Members of the police service’s specially trained emergency response unit were helping investigators carry out a search of the neighbourhood on Sunday.

Officers could be seen doing a grid search, checking rooftops and inspecting the perimeter of the townhouse complex.

“There will be an increased police presence in the Elm Ridge Drive area for the next couple of days,” Haffner said.