Battered body found in river

 A MAN was found dead and floating down the Markham River yesterday morning, with both his hands tied behind his back and his body bearing wounds and marks of beatings.

A group of young men from Labu Butu village, who were checking out their fishing lines at around 8am, discovered the body near the mouth of the river. However, the currents carried the body out to sea where they followed in their canoes before towing it back to their village. They then notified the Morobe disaster and emergency services officers and workers at the Angau Memorial Hospital morgue who turned up and retrieved the body.

“The other boys and I were checking our fishing lines at the river when he floated past us, we left everything and came back for our canoes before following him where we got him out at sea, closer to one of the big ships,” Penias Muais said.

Wampar local level government president Michael Puane, who lives upriver near the end of the one-lane Markham Bridge, had earlier alerted villagers along the river after the dead body was seen by locals floating down the river.

The disaster and emergency officials said they would wait for relatives to identify and claim the body.

Lae Metropolitan Superintendent Iven Lakatani was not available to comment on the gruesome find and confirm if it was linked with any related murder cases.

Many people who sighted the body said it may have been a planned killing as the man was tied up with wire.