Body found in Sidwell home

The  body of a man was found in an outbuilding of a Sidwell house on Tuesday night.

The man, who is in his late 50s, was bleeding from the nose and mouth when found. 

Police said a preliminary investigation was inconclusive and they did not yet know whether the man was murdered or if he had died of natural causes.

Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the body was found when a patrolling security officer noticed, at about 11pm, that the outbuilding's front door was open. 

“He lives and works in the outbuilding. A security officer spotted the door open which drew suspicion,” she said.

“The security company official went into the house and found the man lying in a pool of blood inside one of the rooms.”

Naidu said an ambulance was called to the scene but medics could not establish the cause of death.

“A preliminary investigation resulted in an inquest case being opened, pending the postmortem. Once the postmortem results are attained and a cause of death is established, the case could be changed to murder,” she said.

“Nothing appears to be stolen from the premises at this stage. There were also no signs of forced entry.”

Asked what line of work the man was in, Naidu said he was known in the area to fix household electrical appliances.

Naidu said the man’s identity was known, however, detectives were still trying to track down his next of kin. 

No time line could be given as to when the postmortem would be completed.