Police are now treating the death of a young man, found in an abandoned car on the side of a dirt road, as a homicide.
Emergency services were alerted to the death after a passer-by discovered the 21-year-old in the back seat of a 2003 silver Subaru Forester on Webb Rd in Woodstock, south of Townsville, about 8.45am on Saturday.
Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd said the death was being treated as a homicide and a search for the murder weapon was underway.
“It’s very sad that we now have a family that will spend Christmas without their son, we want to try to bring closure to that family,” he told reporters.
“This young man really hadn’t had any involvement with police before,” Shepherd said.
“We are looking for a weapon that could have been used, as well as any other evidence discarded by the criminal.”
He was last seen with a 26-year-old friend who was arrested that same morning on unrelated charges.
Police released an image of the vehicle and urged anyone who may have seen it or the man on the night of December 13 or early the next day to come forward.
Police launched a homicide investigation after a 21-year-old man was found dead in the back seat of an abandoned car on a dirt road south of Townsville (pictured).
SES teams, armed with metal detectors, continued to comb the area near where the car was found for a weapon.
Police said the car was seen “driving erratically” on Friday night, before a truck driver gave the deceased’s friend a lift the following morning.
He was dropped off at nearby Calcium, where he allegedly entered a B-double truck and drove it about 10 meters before being taken from the cab.
“He’s obviously a person of interest but we can’t rule out the fact that there could be a third person involved,” Inspector Shepherd said.
“Anyone who had interaction with him that morning has indicated that he appeared to be under the influence of some type of substance.”
However, police are not expecting the same substance in the 21-year-old’s toxicology report, which has not yet been released.
Search efforts to obtain more evidence will extend to Dingo Park Road, where the friend was picked up.
SES investigators and teams armed with metal detectors have been combing the area to uncover any evidence left by those killed (pictured).
Anyone with a dash cam who was driving on Webb or Dingo Park Roads at the time was urged to contact police.
“It’s really important that we try to establish a timeline of the movements of the victim and his friend that Friday night, Saturday morning,” Inspector Shepherd said.
“We can leave the victim and his friend in the vehicle at different times during the night, but what we really want is to restrict their movements.”
He added that there was a particular interest in information outside the current investigation.
“Someone may have seen another vehicle, they may have seen another person and if that’s the case we really need them to come forward.”