Pair in court over Dunedin homicide
A man and woman charged after a badly decomposed body was found in a rural area north of Dunedin can now be named.
It appears Brent Andrew Bacon was killed in a Lock St, Dunedin, house on February 4 – which neighbours said police told them was covered in blood and drag marks – then his body dumped in Waitati, about 30 kilometres north of Dunedin.
A vehicle was found in Picton, and the pair, both from Dunedin, were arrested in Rotorua late on Wednesday.
Aleisha Cherie Dawson, 30, and John Kenneth Collins, 37, appeared in the Rotorua District Court yesterday afternoon. Collins was charged with Bacon’s murder while Dawson, who also lives at the Lock St address, has been charged with being an accessory to murder.
The pair also face a charge of stealing Bacon’s Toyota Emina, while Dawson was charged with using a bank card belonging to the deceased.
The pair, understood to be a couple, were remanded in custody to appear next month.
Detective Inspector Shona Low said the victim was known to the pair and police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the murder. The body, which was found on Steep Hill Rd in Waitati about 8pm on Monday, was in an ‘‘advanced state of decomposition’’. It appears likely it was there for almost two weeks.
It comes after police appealed for sightings of a people mover van linked to the homicide. Earlier this week Low made an appeal to the public for sightings of a dark blue 1995 Toyota Emina driven from Dunedin to Picton in the early hours of February 5.
Police found the vehicle in Picton late on Wednesday, Low said.
Low would not say if police had found any weapon, nor would she ‘‘speculate’’ the killing was drugsrelated.
However, she said police had ‘‘no information’’ to suggest there was a gang element to the killing.
The dead man did not live at the Lock St address, nor previously lived there, she said. She would not say if the arrested man and women were a couple, saying that kind of information would ‘‘come out’’.
Police have forensically examined the Lock St, St Clair, house.
It is understood a man and woman lived at the house, which was reportedly covered in blood and drag marks.
An autopsy was scheduled yesterday.
Earlier, a neighbour, who declined to be named, said police told him the semi-detached house was covered in blood and drag marks.
The neighbour said the young couple were known to associate with a gang associate living nearby.
‘‘It used to be a nice street, but now it’s a halfway house for druggies.’’
Lock St resident Marie-Therese Dobier said a young couple lived in the home. The curtains had been pulled for several days, she said.