Police have launched a homicide investigation following the discovery of a body in rural Carterton.
At about 9am yesterday, the body of a man was found in Te Whiti. The quiet area at the beginning of Te Kopi Rd, Carterton is now the scene of intensive police enquiries.
The entrance to Te Kopi Rd was in lockdown all of yesterday. The lockdown is expected to continue today. A police cordon was in place from the intersection of Te Kopi Rd with Te Whiti Rd, up to half a kilometre in.
While the death was initially described as unexplained, specialist police investigators are examining the scene and the investigation has been upgraded to homicide. Police are speaking with three people in relation to the incident.
In a separate incident yesterday, a man was critically injured on SH2 just outside Greytown and airlifted to the intensive care unit at Wellington Hospital. Police have started an investigation. Detective senior sergeant Philip Skoglund is the police investigations manager for Wairarapa. He was at the Te Kopi Rd investigation scene yesterday.
“At this stage, we are investigating the death of a male person overnight. It’s too early to say whether the death is suspicious until we get into the scene and carry out a scene examination and a post-mortem,” he said.
Late yesterday the body remained at the scene in an area of grassland, as specialist police staff arrived to conduct enquiries.
Skoglund thought it unlikely the body could be removed until, at the earliest, later today.
“I would anticipate this scene examination will take two or three days,” he said.
Skoglund said the community should not be concerned.
“Police are carrying out a thorough investigation and will be able to report back as soon as possible with an update.
“At this stage, we are not looking at anybody further,” he said.
Skoglund said police were keen to hear from any members of the public that had noticed any suspicious activity in the area. A particular area of interest was the initial area between the turnoff into Te Kopi Rd from Te Whiti Rd.
