KEY POINTS:
A man was killed just minutes after withdrawing $100 from a cashpoint machine during an evening out drinking, say police.
Three teenagers aged 16, 18 and 19 appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday afternoon on homicide charges.
Police later said that a 24-year-old woman had also been arrested
for being a party to the murder and she will appear in court today.
The man died at 12.52am yesterday after leaving a pub on Te Puke's main street and withdrawing cash from the Bank of New Zealand A". His body was found on the footpath nearby.
The victim, a 45-year-old known to many locals as Dale, had spent the early part of the evening drinking at the Te Puke Hotel before crossing the road and spending the few remaining hours of his life at the Stadium Bar.
Sue Peat, the hotel's owner, described him as a "really friendly, nice guy".
"He's not a loner, but is often alone if you know what I mean. He mixes well with lots of different people. It's quite bizarre really."
The man first came to the area in April last year.
He had worked in the kiwifruit industry but was likely to have been doing contract work at this time of the year, Ms Peat said.
What happened after he left the bar just before 1am was the focus of police inquiries yesterday, as a detailed forensic examination by ESR scientists got under way on Jellicoe St.
Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said the three young men made an initial appearance in the district court yesterday afternoon on homicide charges.
Two of the men had given themselves up at the Te Puke police station about 7am yesterday. The third went in about 8.30am.
"Obviously this incident will destroy the lives, or have grave consequences, for four families," Mr Turner said. "Alcohol is possibly a factor for all those involved."
He said police had good leads on who the victim was but were yesterday having trouble contacting the dead man's next of kin.
It is understood Dale had ties to Te Awamutu, which Mr Turner said was an avenue police were checking out.
"The body will go to Auckland, and will be finger ID'd in the morning and a post-mortem will be carried out."
There was no indication a weapon had been used to kill Dale and a likely scenario was a "manual assault", although Mr Turner said he could rule nothing out at this stage.
The results of the post-mortem examination would reveal more, he said.
Detectives yesterday meticulously marked out items of interest on the footpath with tiny orange cones.
Meanwhile, Dale's body lay beneath a white tent, face up and naked above his waist. The large police cordon forced the closure of a number of businesses on the western side of the street, including the bank and post office.
Dozens of curious onlookers stood on the opposite side of the road, clearly distressed at what had unfolded on their normally sleepy main street on a weekday night.
"This time of the year, it's so sad," said resident Marilyn Pinkerton. "It affects everybody, this type of thing. Being a small town, everybody is bound to know who he is and I feel terrible that the body is still lying there."
Retailers in the main street suffered significant loss of trade yesterday, but some business owners were able to open doors at the rear of their buildings to let customers in.
A short portion of SH2 in Te Puke was closed most of yesterday and traffic was diverted around the back of the main street.
