Man’s body found beneath bookcase during quake check
THE decomposing body of a man has been found in a Lower Hutt house with a book case lying on top of it.
James Loo was found in a house on Hutt Rd about 6pm on Thursday night by a relative.
A source close to the family described Loo as a 49-year-old recluse. Family had decided to check on him following the earthquake.
He said when the relative arrived at the house he found the windows wide open and the back door unlocked.
‘‘He found James under a book case but the body was heavily decomposed. He had to remove the book case off him. It’s possible James died a while ago, but the family doesn’t know if foul play was involved. It may be that he had been lying there for a while and that the earthquake caused the bookcase to come down.’’
He said the level of decomposition suggested he may have died months or weeks ago.
‘‘It was the earthquakes that made the family take the unusual step of actually going to his place. Otherwise they’d usually respect his privacy,’’ he said.
There was no way of telling if anything had been taken from the house as noone knew what he had in it.
‘‘James had cut himself off from the family for years. We’ve all tried. Every time there’s something going on we always try to ring him or email him but he never replies. He worked as an accountant for many years, but stopped that over 10 years ago.
‘‘It was thought that he earned a living by trading shares and gambling online.’’ He said Loo was born overseas and arrived in New Zealand as a teenager with his family. He had never married and had no children. His mother was flying from overseas on Sunday.
A neighbour said she had last seen him about six weeks ago.
‘‘There’s no way of knowing what happened. Who knows? He may have had a heart attack after the earthquake. He always kept to himself but we always kept a bit of an eye on him, saw him at his computer or watching TV from time to time,’’ she said.
Loo’s brother did not want to comment when contacted yesterday.
Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious and had been referred to the coroner.