By TONY WALL
Justin Dyne had not been seen around the Tui Glen motor camp for some time when staff decided to look inside the caravan the transient rented for $115 a week.
They found a mouldy meal in two pots on a stove, mud tramped across the floor and general untidiness.
The sickness beneficiary who had been shunted between drug recovery centres and halfway houses for several months had probably "done a bunk," they thought.
So they cleaned up, put his clothing in a bin for use by other residents of the Henderson motor camp and rented the caravan to new tenants.
Little did they know that Mr Dyne - whom police have described as a 13-year-old in a 25-year-old's body - had been murdered, and that his body lay rotting and undiscovered in the Waitakere Ranges.
Even weeks later, when they saw publicity about the discovery of a body, believed to be a transient in his 20s, they did not contact police.
"If we told the police every time someone disappeared, we'd be up at the police station all the time," one staff member told the Herald.
It was not until police arrived at the camp on Saturday morning to make inquiries that management realised Mr Dyne was the victim of foul play.
Police are refusing to say how he died.
"That's information best kept in my head," said Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Franklin.
Although there were no obvious signs of a struggle in the caravan, it has been taken away for forensic tests.
Detective Senior Sergeant Franklin said police still wanted to speak to at least a dozen residents, or former residents, of the camp. He urged them to contact police - "I'd like to think they'll come to us before we come to them."
He believes Mr Dyne was killed on July 25 or soon after.
Mr Dyne last spoke to his mother in Lower Hutt on July 23, and made a $20 withdrawal from a cash machine at the WestCity shopping centre at 5.37 pm on July 25.
Detective Senior Sergeant Franklin said Mr Dyne would often walk to the Henderson shops and hang out at pool halls, video parlours and dairies.
Police were still trying to reach the mother of his child.
In a plea issued through the police, Mr Dyne's mother, Linda, said she was shocked by her son's death.
"Someone must know what happened to him and who was responsible. I hope they find it in their hearts to give police and us his family the answers we need."
Mrs Dyne said her son had a younger brother and sister, grew up in the Hutt Valley and was educated at St Bernards College.
"He didn't have the easiest of lives, but he was embraced by his family."
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