A 30-year-old Northland man has been charged with murder after a man died at a farm house.
Police planned to name the dead man today after officially identifying him late yesterday.
The man's body was discovered after emergency services were called to a house near Tauraroa, 24km south-west of Whangarei about 1.25am yesterday.
A Whangarei man, from Otangarei, was charged with murder and appeared in the Whangarei District Court.
He was granted interim name suppression and was remanded in custody to appear again on September 15 to allow for a legal aid application to be made.
Police launched a homicide investigation after the man's body was discovered and forensic scientists spent much of yesterday examining the house trying to piece together the death. The examination was expected to continue today.
Northland police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said police were interviewing people who had been at the house when the man died.
Northland ambulance boss Tony Devanney said a St John ambulance crew was sent to the rural house, but the man was dead when they arrived.
Plastic police emergency tape was strung across the pipe gate at the bottom of a gravel driveway leading to the old white-and-grey farm villa.
A tractor was parked near an implement shed and stockyards while washing remained on a clothesline. The house was surrounded by paddocks.
Neighbours were shocked to hear the news some one had died in suspicious circumstances.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said she suspected something was happening when she noticed two cars, one with hazard lights blinking, go up the driveway about 2am.
"I got up to go to the toilet and looked out the lounge room window which faces that house and I could see two vehicles going up there," she said. "I couldn't tell if they were police vehicles or not ... it was too dark."
She said the people who lived in the farm villa had recently moved in.
"I've heard little kids over there all the time, yelling and playing. I'm shocked. This is a quiet rural neighbourhood."
Another neighbour said the news had given her goose bumps. "It's shocking to think it's just up the road."
Murder charge follows death at farm
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