A man found dead in the Cairns Botanic Gardens may have lain there for several days, say local police.
The body was found behind a large, disused water tank late on Tuesday afternoon. He had been missing since the afternoon of New Year’s Day.
Police are treating the death as suspicious, with Detective Senior Sergeant Edward Kinbacher telling the ABC that “the individual has suffered some injuries, which causes some concern“:
“This is a murder investigation until such time as we establish that there are non-suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.“
The victim, a 56-year-old father of three, had been living in Cairns for the past year after moving from Melbourne to be with relatives following a death in the family.
The area where the man was found is shielded from traffic and not frequented by pedestrians, but police are asking anyone who visited the nearby car park in the days surrounding the incident, particularly on the night of New Year’s Day, to come forward with any information they might have.
The section of the Botanic Gardens remains a crime scene.
Source and image: ABC.
