Police are working to establish the identity of the person whose body was found in a plastic bag in Auckland’s Gulf Harbour yesterday. 

Acting Detective Inspector Tim Williams said the investigation remained “at the very early stages”. 

“The body has been recovered from the water and a post-mortem examination is expected to begin later today. Police have finished our inquiries at the scene with our cordons being stood down. 

“Our priority is to establish the identity of the deceased and what has led to their death.” 

Williams said police had spoken with people who were in the area at the time the body was found. 

Police at Gulf Harbour after fisherman Paul Middleton pulled human remains from the water yesterday. RNZ / Nick Monro 

“We would also encourage any residents in the nearby coastal area that saw anything suspicious to contact us.” 

He said police would continue to provide updates when in a position to do so. 

‘We’ve got a body’ 

A fisherman has described the moment he pulled the bag of human remains out of Gulf Harbour. 

Paul Middleton said he was in the Whangaparāoa area to do some fishing, trying to catch some decent-sized kahawai or snapper. 

He had gone to Army Bay in the morning but had not found many fish so went to try around the ferry terminal. 

“I [cast] my lure out ... and nothing much was happening, but there was a bag out there.” 

Fisherman Paul Middleton hands over his lure to police after finding human remains wrapped in plastic bags in Gulf Harbour. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ 

He said that, at the time, he did not know it was a bag, and thought it was a log or a dead animal. Boats had been passing through the area, near the entrance to the marina, he said. 

“Anyway, the wind changed and brought it into the coast. Anything floating in the water brings fish around, so I was targeting it. I got that perfect shot, like millimetres to the side of it.” 

He hooked it and pulled it into the shore - it was heavy but easy to move - and managed to pull it up the rocks a little. 

“I took the hook out and thought, ‘Right, let’s see if it’s a bag of rubbish and I need to dump it in a rubbish bin or something’.” 

Paul Middleton hands over his fishing rod to police for the investigation. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ 

He struggled through “layer and layer” of plastic to open the bag. 

There was “a bit of clothing ... and then there was this hand sticking out”. 

It was at that point that he called police. 

“Two cops turned up and they thought I’d actually said there’s just a hand in a bag and then they went down there and went, ‘Oh no we’ve got a body’,” Middleton said. 

A hearse took away the human remains found near the Gulf Harbour ferry terminal. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ 

Middleton said he did not try to open the bag further once he discovered the hand. 

Police confirmed that a body had been found in the water near Laurie Southwick Parade on Tuesday afternoon. 

They were treating the death as unexplained and the area was cordoned off while officers made inquiries in the nearby area, they said. 

There was no immediate risk to the public in relation to this death, said police. 

• Police have urged anyone with information to contact police on 105 or go online using the ‘update my report’ function and use reference file number 240312/9837. 

-RNZ