Detectives investigating the death of a 31-year-old man on Saturday night in New Plymouth are appealing to partygoers to come forward with information.
Police confirmed they are dealing with a homicide after a post mortem examination on Monday on Peri Niwa.
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward said upwards of 50 guests at the party at a house in Blagdon Road may hold crucial information.
“Only a handful of guests at that party have so far come forward to police,” he said tonight.
Around midnight Saturday, in the street not far from the Blagdon Rd house there was believed to have been some sort of confrontation, shortly after which Niwa was found dead in a house in nearby Squire Place.
Coward would not disclose the result of the post mortem “for investigative reasons”.
Residents in the Squire Place neighbourhood said they were woken by a confrontation they say started just after midnight.
“I just heard a man out of his tree,” one neighbour told the Taranaki Daily News.
“He had completely lost it, screaming and yelling. I thought they were only having a fight and didn’t take much notice. The next thing I heard was a lady screaming and the next thing I know police had arrived.”
NZPA
