Thursday, 12 December 2013 - 9:16am |
National News

Police say too early to confirm identity of body recovered from Waikato River

1 min read

Police involved in the recovery of a person's body from the Waikato River today say it is too early to say if it was that of a missing Australian man, last seen early Sunday morning.

Waikato Field Crime Manager, Detective Inspector Karl Thornton, said two calls were received by members of the public shortly before 7am in relation to sightings of a body in the Waikato River.

"These sightings were confirmed by a responding Police officer and a recovery operation was completed by about 7.40am

 "This was conducted with the assistance of the Hamilton Police rescue launch and members of the Waikato Search and Rescue Squad and the body of the yet to be identified person was recovered to Waikato Hospital."

Mr Thornton said while it was natural to speculate the body recovered was that of missing 38-year-old Melbourne Man, Paul Arber, it is expected to be some time before a formal identification was completed.

"We have however, not received any other reports of missing persons we believe could be linked to this morning's recovery."

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