Police are refusing to say whether the death of a man whose body was found slumped in the passenger seat of a car in a Hamilton carpark was the result of foul play.
An autopsy this morning should reveal the cause of death of the Pacific Island man who was found dead yesterday morning in his silver Toyota Celica at the Clyde Shopping Centre in Hamilton East.
Lisa Morgan, who is the manager at Lawrence's Appliance Centre, told the Herald she often saw the man parked up in his car but like others in the area never knew his name.
Other shop owners had also reportedly seen the man in the carpark over the past two weeks.
One saw him asleep in a sleeping bag in the car one night.
Ms Morgan said there were no reports of disorder in the carpark on Monday night, but she thought something was amiss when she was about to have her first coffee of the morning and looked out her shop window and saw the front passenger door was open.
"I was getting my coffee and this woman at the bakery just said to me that the car had been there for the last couple of days," she said.
"I said 'we need to go and see what's happened'." Ms Morgan approached the car and saw the man, who looked asleep.
A closer inspection revealed he was sitting in the front passenger seat and was slouched with his head leaning towards the middle of the dashboard.
"I didn't need to check his pulse, you could just tell by his colour and by looking at him that he was dead," she said.
"My theory is he may have had some kind of sickness and just ... I don't know whether he was drinking too much. It's just speculation but hopefully it was nothing sinister."
Ms Morgan said the man was probably in his late 20s or early 30s. She could not see any signs of struggle or injuries but noticed a large number of items strewn throughout the car, including a large bag containing clothes.
"It was clear he was living in his car which is pretty sad, it was just chock-a-block with all his stuff."
The carpark was cordoned off and businesses closed to customers for about four hours yesterday as forensic staff began their investigation.
Police spokesman Tony Sasso said the car, with the dead man still inside it, was eventually towed to Hamilton Central police station around midday.
"That was about the body remaining in situ until police completed the next stage of their investigation," he said.
Mr Sasso said police would not comment on whether they believed the man's death was suspicious.
They were also uncertain about how long the car and the man had been at the carpark.