The skeleton of a person in a shallow grave has been found on the Coromandel Peninsula east of Auckland.
The body was exposed after recent rainstorms caused a slip at Matapaua Bay, north of the holiday resort of Whitianga.
When police got to the area this afternoon, they discovered someone had covered up the skeleton with a cairn of rocks since the rainstorm.
A human skull and a number of bones have been recovered.
The man who found the remains has told InvestigateDaily he was mindful of missing Swedish tourist Heidi Paakkonen, who was murdered in 1989 in the Coromandel and never found. However, both he and police believe the body is most likely to be pre-European, even though it was found less than 30cm deep.
It’s understood Waikato CIB has been advised.
When Urban Hoglin’s body was found near Whangamata in 1991, just two years after his disappearance, all that remained was his skeleton, some jewelry and a few shreds of clothing.