Dog walker discovers woman’s body

NAPIER: A dog walker who discovered the body of a woman in a burntout car said police who attended initially told him the remains were of a sheep.

Police announced on Monday afternoon that they had launched an investigation into an ‘‘unexplained death’’.

The vehicle was first discovered on Saturday morning in the River Rd car park, on the outskirts of Havelock North and near some of Hawke’s Bay’s most prestigious vineyards.

The car remained there over the weekend.

But on Monday, a dog walker took a closer look at it and made the grisly discovery of a woman’s body in the burntout wreck, alerting police to take a closer look.

‘‘I started picking up all the melted bits of aluminium around the car,’’ the Hastings man said.

‘‘As I was doing that I noticed inside the car what to me looked like a corpse.

‘‘Instantly I yelled out to the first person near me, who was also walking a dog, ‘Hey, there’s a body in the back’.

‘‘He looked at another dog walker, and both of these two dudes waltzed over to the car and said, ‘We have already heard about it mate, it’s been here since Saturday. It is just a dog’.’’

The man said he ‘‘wasn’t convinced’’ that the remains were those of an animal.

He took a closer look and discovered a woman’s body which was lying ‘‘face down behind the driver’s seat’’.

‘‘I could see a shape that looked like a human,’’ he said.

‘‘I noticed she had a silver chain around her neck, so I managed to free that up a little bit, and then leaned inside the car.

‘‘I leaned in the window so I was over the top of the body, grabbed her hip bone and chain and lifted her torso and head so that she was lying across the back seat.

‘‘She had shoulderlength hair, the necklace, and I could see [some of her facial features]. I knew it was a human.’’

The man said it was clear that the woman had ‘‘multiple bone fractures’’.

He immediately called police and urged them to rush to the scene.

When officers arrived, he said they told him that they were already aware of the wreck and said that the remains were those of an animal.

‘‘They sent someone down,’’ he said.

‘‘They waltzed on down [to the car park] and it was like, ‘We have already heard about it. It is a sheep’.

‘‘I lost it, I had already exposed her face, and said, ‘Does a sheep have shoulderlength hair? Does a sheep wear a necklace?’.

‘‘That is when the two officers went and had a look and asked me to stand back.’’

A police spokesman confirmed they received their initial report about the burnt car about 10am on Saturday.

The fact a human body was in there was not discovered until Monday.

‘‘Staff attended and due to the condition of the vehicle and debris from the fire, did not immediately identify that human remains were in the cabin of the car,’’ the spokesman said.

‘‘A subsequent inspection of the vehicle revealed suspected human remains.’’

The spokesman said the investigation was still in the ‘‘very early stages’’.

Eastern district commander Superintendent Jeanette Park said police would be reviewing the initial response.

‘‘Our priority at the moment, is to identify this person, and to let their family know,’’ she said.

The dog walker who made the discovery said it had been a harrowing experience.

He said he had struggled to get what he saw out of his mind.

‘‘I went for a big drive to Whanganui and back on Monday night to get some time to clear the mind,’’ he said.

The man said he feared if it had not been discovered the body was human, the car would have been sent to a scrapyard and there would be no chance the dead woman could be farewelled by loved ones.

❛ They waltzed on down [to the car park] and it was like, ‘We have already heard about it. It is a sheep’