Luis Feliu
Police are investigating the death of a 33-year-old man whose decomposed body was found in a car at South Murwillumbah on Saturday.
It’s believed the body, found lying across the front seat of a small sedan on a vacant block of land in River Street, had been there for some time.
It was found by a visitor at the next door used-car yard who went to investigate a lingering smell thought to be a dead animal.
He called police after seeing the body lying across the front seat of a white Hyundai Excel.
The Queensland-registered car was one of several older-style cars parked in the council-owned block of land put up for sale by the neighbouring business.
A crime scene was established and examined by specialist forensic officers for several hours on Saturday afternoon.
Detectives from Tweed/Byron Local Area Command are probing the death and have urged anyone with information that could help with their investigation to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Well-known local Phil Taylor, who owns the used-car yard next door told Echonetdaily that the car, being sold for a friend, had been parked there for a while but was unlocked and had no battery.
Mr Taylor said he and others at his yard thought the lingering smell could have been a cat which had gone missing from the car yard for some days.
When a young visitor went to investigate on Saturday, he saw the body in the car where the smell was coming from.
Tweed shire councillor Gary Bagnall, who lives nearby, told Echonetdaily, he saw a lot of police activity at the site when he drove home that afternoon and was told by neighbours it had been cordoned off as a crime scene.
Cr Bagnall said it was the second decomposed body to have been found in the Murwillumbah area this year.
He said police were yet to establish the identity of the man in the ‘body in the bag’ mystery, where the skeletal remains of a man were found wrapped in what is believed to have been a sleeping bag on the banks of the Tweed River near Tumbulgum.
