Witnesses say they may have seen body afloat inshore a day earlier

[There was] a bit of clothing . . . and then there was this hand sticking out.

Fisherman Paul Middleton

Tourists parked in a camper van at Auckland’s Gulf Harbour where a body was found in a plastic bag say they also noticed something large floating in the water a day earlier.

The Kiwi couple said they had looked at the object from the shoreline but hadn’t known what it was.

Wind had blown into the gulf on Monday, bringing logs and debris into the harbour, they said.

Retiree fisherman Paul Middleton would then reel in a grisly find a day later when he used his fishing gear to hook a “big lump” in the water that ultimately contained human remains.

Middleton was in the Whangapara¯oa area to do some fishing, trying to catch some decent-sized kahawai or snapper.

He had gone to Army Bay in the morning but had not found many fish so went to try around the ferry terminal.

“I [cast] my lure out . . . and nothing much was happening, but there was a bag out there.”

He said that at the time he did not know it was a bag, and thought it was a log or a dead animal. Boats had been passing through the area, near the entrance to the marina, he said.

“Anyway, the wind changed and brought it in to the coast. Anything floating in the water brings fish around, so I was targeting it. I got that perfect shot, like millimetres to the side of it.”

He hooked it and pulled it into the shore — it was heavy but easy to move — and managed to pull it up the rocks a little.

“I took the hook out and thought, ‘Right, let’s see if it’s a bag of rubbish and I need to dump it in a rubbish bin or something’.”

He struggled through “layer and layer” of plastic to open the bag.

There was “a bit of clothing . . . and then there was this hand sticking out”.

It was at that point that he called police.

Middleton had been fishing from rocks on the coast. He then dragged the object up on to the rocks, but not further out of the water because it was too heavy, the tourist said.

Once Middleton unwrapped the plastic around it and found a human hand, he returned to his nearby camper and phoned police.

The Kiwi couple, meanwhile, described Middleton as a “down-toearth fisherman” who handled the gruesome discovery well.

They said Middleton had told them that after noticing a big lump floating near where he was fishing, he wondered why none of the passing boats stopped to check it out.

When it floated closer he tried to hook it, but also kept casting close to it, thinking fish might be swimming around it.

The couple said the RV campsite had been peaceful the past few days they had been staying at it, with nothing suspicious taking place.

They also hoped the grisly find might at least bring closure to a family, who had been dealing with the grief of having a missing loved one.

Another traveller at the campsite said it was a sad discovery.

“It’s sad, it’s someone’s son or daughter or maybe even mother or father,” he said.

Acting Detective Inspector Tim Williams earlier yesterday said the investigation remained “at the very early stages” as police worked to identify the body.

“The body has been recovered from the water and a post-mortem examination is expected to begin later today. Police have finished our inquiries at the scene with our cordons being stood down,” he said.

“Our priority is to establish the identity of the deceased and what has led to their death.”