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Large body found in Melbourne car blaze

The body of a large man has been found in the boot of a burnt out car in Melbourne’s outskirts, with those responsible apparently having gone to considerable lengths to dump him there.

The car was found ablaze just after midnight on a secluded road in Diggers Rest.

It had been rammed into a fence in an apparent attempt to drive it beneath a bridge.

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“There is a gate to the left of where they have tried to smash through,” Victoria Police Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey told AAP on Friday.

“That road takes you down under the Holden bridge where you’d be out of view, and I think that is where they’ve tried to get to, but the car was too badly damaged as a result of hitting the bollards.”

The vehicle, a late-model Peugeot 407 wagon, had its number plates removed, suggesting it was stolen.

Police are reviewing security camera footage from petrol stations on the nearby Calder Freeway looking for any sign of the car.
This may also reveal a getaway vehicle likely used by the perpetrators to flee the scene.

It is thought an accelerant was used to burn the car. Its engine block number partially melted due to the intensity of the blaze.

“We’re working with Peugeot, and VicRoads, to try and work out the owner of that car,” Det Sen Sgt Bailey said.
Dental or DNA records will likely be required to formally identify the man.

He was a “large man – we’d say he was 100kg plus,” Det Sen Sgt Bailey said.

“We don’t know what he has died of at this point in time, but he has been fully engulfed in fire so identity is an issue.
“There may be an opportunity for a (finger) print on one hand, but it is going to be difficult.”

There is also no initial indication of the man’s age, and an autopsy is underway.

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