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The man whose remains were found locked in concrete in a Mt Eden home left behind a stash of photos and possessions, says the home’s new owner.
Investigators are going back 16 years to find clues about David Stanley Hart, who disappeared from the central Auckland village he had and had ties to gold prospectors on the South Island.
The house functioned as a pension until 2016, shortly before its sale. When Peter Marsden bought the house, it seemed like some tenants had just left.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
The remains were discovered by a bulldozer on the property in Mount Eden, Auckland.
“I almost wish the cameras had been following me when I bought the house, opening all the doors and all the boxes,” Marsden said Friday.
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Some rooms still appeared to have the tenants’ belongings, as well as Hart’s.
Marsden said he expected a former tenant to show up at some point asking for Hart, but no one did.
“When I bought the house… there was so much in it. I tried to locate him, ”Peter Marsden said Friday.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Hart’s remains were found on a property on Marlborough Street Body found encased in concrete
He said that while exploring his new home, he found a huge stash of photos, which he didn’t want to throw away.
But as time passed and no one came over to ask about Hart or the possessions, Marsden said he couldn’t get a direct answer as to where Hart might be.
“I just finished everything. The garage was crowded. I threw like 12 jumps of things. “
Marsden said the photos he saw appeared to tell the story of a man with a family.
But it didn’t appear that any of Hart’s relatives had come forward, not even in the seven months since the human remains were found.
The story the possessions told seemed frozen in time, and Marsden said no memory indicated Hart’s presence in the home for years, she said.
Marsden said that an Asian woman appeared in many photos and the person whose possessions she found seemed obsessed with the photograph.
“The police ended up with a bunch of slides that I kept,” he said.
“It was not a normal house. I bought it knowing it was not normal. “
Marsden said that when he bought the house, he wanted a great project to work on.
“It turned out to be a bit bigger than I expected.”
Marsden wondered if Hart died of natural causes, and the tenants who didn’t know what to do decided to bury him.
“It would be nice to know what happened.”
He also wondered if an unscrupulous person kept quiet about Hart’s death, buried him, and kept pocketing rent.
Those ideas can only be speculation for now.
Marsden understood that no fees were paid for the property for a long time before it was sold.
Joanne Carroll / Things
David Hart’s previous section at Blackball on the West Coast was also sold after he disappeared and stopped paying fees.
The unpaid fees also led to the sale of a West Coast property that Hart owned in Blackball.
Hart was known to some Blackball locals, and it was believed that he used to pan for gold in the area.
But former associate Neville Sheehan said Hart had not been seen in the mining town for about twenty years.
‘KEY FIGURE’ ALSO DEAD
Marsden said some neighbors told her that Hart was an inmate.
“Unfortunately, one of the key figures is dead: Gabriel. He was probably our boy to talk to. “
That person is Gabriel D’Angelo, also known as George Nathan Gabriel Ormsby, who died in September 2016.
An obituary described D’Angelo as a singer, songwriter, poet, and painter.
A neighbor said Friday that D’Angelo was the main tenant.
Another neighbor, who had lived on the street for decades, said her husband used to visit Hart and work on construction projects with him.
Police confirmed on Friday that Hart was the person whose remains were specifically buried on the Marlborough St. property.
Acting Detective Sergeant Major Mark Franich said Hart’s death was being treated as suspicious.
But the cause of his death and how he came to be locked up in particular is still unknown.
Police said anyone who had contact with Hart or any interaction at 3 Marlborough Street, Mt Eden from March 2004 to 2016 should call police at 105 or Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.
Franich said Friday that he would not discuss what the new owner of Mt Eden said.
Local resident Malcolm O’Neill said it was a “sad and interesting case”, but there were probably many other Auckland houses that had yet to reveal their secrets.
O’Neill said he felt bad for Hart, but added: “No one here bothers. It was so long ago, it’s a curiosity now. “
