ACT Policing Forensics officers prepare to enter a unit on Sunday as they continue to investigate a death at Bega Court flats. Photo: Jeffrey Chan
Residents of Bega Court flats have spoken of their shock and devastation as the grim discovery of a neighbour's body was made in the Reid complex on the weekend.
Friends have remembered the deceased as a troubled but kind man, who was well known to those in the block of flats on Kogarah Lane, just opposite the Canberra Centre.
Police are still attempting to determine whether there is anything suspicious about the death, or whether it was a suicide.
ACT police investigators search rubbish at Bega Court on Sunday morning after the discovery of a body the previous day. Photo: Jeffrey Chan
It was the third body found in Canberra in a week, and follows the discovery of Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber, who was stabbed to death in his Lyneham home, and Miodrag Gajic, who suffered fatal head injuries in his Phillip unit on New Year's Day.
The deaths of Mr Sofer-Schreiber and Mr Gajic are both being treated as homicides, and police on Sunday repeated their calls for anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
The scene at Reid remained taped off on Sunday, and detectives, forensics, and general duties police remained at the site.
Officers continued to scour the nearby area, searching through rubbish skips around the complex.
As authorities continued their investigations, friends and neighbours spoke of the moments leading up to the discovery of the 52-year-old man.
One nearby resident said a bad smell had been noticed coming from the man's unit, and someone had expressed fears he might be dead.
A man reportedly went up to investigate and managed to get through a locked door.
He was soon heard yelling something similar to ''oh my God''.
''He's called the ambulance and we were just around waiting for the ambulance and seeing if the guy who found him was all right, because he was pretty distressed, he was devastated,'' one resident said.
Ellie Trewartha, a neighbour who knew the man well, said she had heard yelling, and ran out to see what was wrong. ''He was very distraught from seeing [the body], no one wants to find someone in that state,'' Ms Trewartha said.
''He was crying and I gave him a cuddle, and he was saying 'he's dead','' she said.
The deceased is believed to have suffered from significant mental health problems.
Neighbours remembered him fondly, saying he was ''lovely'', although often difficult to talk to.
One woman said the man had helped her when she had a baby about five months ago.
''I thought he was very sweet,'' she said.
''He'd come and make sure I wasn't alone and stressing.''
The residents in the nearby flats said they were like a family, and looked after each other.
That meant the death had shocked and saddened many.
''I've seen him every single day, so it's going to be hard to not see him any more,'' Ms Trewartha said.
''I found he was hard to talk to most of the time … [but] he was nice, he just kept to himself.''
