Somerset: 73-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder as police investigate 'suspicious' death

A 73-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died. Avon and Somerset Police said officers were called to a property on Bath Road on Sunday (January 14) following the 'suspicious' death of a man aged in his 50s.

He remains in custody whilst the police await the results of the postmortem and other enquiries are carried out. The victim's next of kin has been informed and a specially trained family liaison officer will provide them with support. A forensic postmortem examination to try to establish his cause of death is due to take place later this week.

A cordon is currently in place at the property the man was found in. A car, which police believe belonged to the deceased, has also been recovered on Ellacombe Road for examination. House to house enquiries will be carried out as part of the investigation, along with a review of CCTV and doorbell footage from the area.

Detective Inspector Lee Stefano said: “While the formal identification process has not yet been carried out, we believe the man who sadly died had been reported as missing to us on Friday after he hadn’t been seen for three days. Officers were actively searching for him when we received the call informing us of his death.

“Early indications are the man may have sadly died some days ago and the delay in which this was reported to us is one of the reasons why we are treating his death as suspicious. The forensic post-mortem will be key in helping us to understand how he died and whether or not there was any third party involvement.

“While we’re treating the death as suspicious, we continue to keep an open mind about what happened. The man’s family will be kept informed about our investigation and we’re thinking of them at this sad time.”