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Police have confirmed the identity of a body found locked up specifically in Auckland’s Mt Eden earlier this year.
The deceased was David Stanley Hart, the former owner of a boarding house at the Marlborough Street address.
Hart’s remains were originally found on January 31 and police are treating his death as a suspect.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
Police at the Mt Eden scene where the remains of David Stanley Hart were found.
Acting Detective Sergeant Major Mark Franich said Friday that police were pleased to take the case to a point where the remains could be identified.
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“It is a credit to the investigation team and to ESR that we have been able to reach the stage where an identification of Mr. Hart was made, as it has been a long, complex and exhaustive process.”
Hart’s family has been notified.
While his death was treated as a suspect, Franich said the cause of his death is still unknown, as is how he was buried under his home.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
An excavator has discovered human remains on a property on Mt Eden.
The police had located and spoken with several people who lived at the address.
More help was needed from anyone who may have interacted or had contact with Hart from March 2004 onwards or interacted with people who lived at 3 Marlborough Street until 2016, when it ceased to operate as a pension.
Stuff spoke to neighbors about Hart earlier this year.
Hart had definite ties to Westland and possible ties to Australia.
“We all used to call him Dave. He was just one of the guys,” said a neighbor at Mt Eden.
The Marlborough St resident said Hart was known locally as “Mad Dave,” not in a derogatory way, but because of a peculiar tendency to “appear” out of nowhere.
“If I saw you working at the place, I would be with you, telling a story. He was a very attractive guy.”
The neighbor said that in the 1990s or early 2000s, people always seemed to come and go from Hart’s property, which operated as a guest house.
