Grisly find at tip

Vehicles were turned around at the landfill gates during the homicide investigation 127102 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS

By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS

A MAN’S body has been discovered at a Hampton Park landfill – apparently after being dumped by a waste truck on Tuesday morning.
Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O’Connell, of the police’s homicide squad, said an “observant” machinery operator discovered the body as he cleared rubbish in the general waste area of the SITA-operated resource-recovery precinct in Hallam Road about 8am.
At first, the staff member mistakenly thought the “semi-clothed” body was a mannequin until they took a closer look.
Detective O’Connell said yesterday afternoon police didn’t know the dead man’s identity, where he was from or how he died. There were no known missing males-of-interest, he said.
“We’re treating the death as suspicious,” he said.
“It’s very disturbing. No-one deserves to be in the position this gentleman finds himself in.”
Police thought the man’s body – which bore no signs of injury – was brought in by an unidentified waste truck between 6am and 8am that morning.
Detective O’Connell said trucks deposited household, commercial and industrial waste from most parts of Melbourne and some parts of rural Victoria at the landfill.
Investigators were unsure if the body had been “disturbed” by machines in the challenging crime scene, he said.
Police were yesterday awaiting results of the State Coroner’s post-mortem examination of the body.