A WORLD WAR II veteran has been found decapitated in the backyard of the Armidale home where he lived alone for two decades, in a sickening and seemingly motiveless murder.
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The severed head of 82-year-old Mark Hutchinson was found lying next to his body, an ambulance spokesman said.
Relatives made the grisly find in the yard that backs onto a bike path and parkland when they called to see Mr Hutchinson yesterday, police said.
"He was just a mild mannered, fine, upstanding gentleman, and I just can't possibly imagine why anybody would do what they've done," local RSL president Dr Kevin Smith told Seven News.
Armidale mayor, Peter Ducat, said the murder was distressing.
"I'm shocked to think that something like this could happen in Armidale. Most people would be sickened that an 82-year-old person has been murdered in their own home," he said.
Neighbours said Mr Hutchinson had lived alone at the house after moving there in 1985.
Neighbour Jenny Schultz said the man was well-liked in the area.
"I just can't believe it, he was so friendly. The whole neighbourhood thought he was wonderful," she said.
Forensic experts – crime scene investigators by any other name – have been called to the house and a post mortem is expected to be carried out in Newcastle in the next few days.
Mr Hutchinson's home at 74 Markham St is a neatly kempt and well maintained white and blue fibro residence. He was not known to have any enemies and appeared well respected and liked.
The death comes in the wake of the horrific murder of 81-year-old holocaust survivor Katherine Schweitzer in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, on December 27.
Mrs Schweitzer's body was found dumped in a wheelie bin and her killer is still on the loose.
Police have said they do not believe the crime is linked to recent reported sightings of suspected murderer Malcolm John Naden in the North West and New England regions.
Confusion still appears to surround the time of death.
It is understood police believe the crime may have occurred as early as Friday night.
Armidale photographer Anthony Wood said he first became aware police had been called to the scene on Saturday evening. Horrified family members had discovered the decapitated body at about 2pm on Saturday.
Locals said police first arrived at the house later that afternoon.
By 10am yesterday morning a full scale search of reserves and parkland around the home was under way.
Almost 20 police and Armidale SES volunteers combed more than a hectare of grasslands in what is believed to have been a search for a murder weapon or other evidence.
It is not known what, if anything, the search revealed.
Detectives are particularly keen to hear from any members of the public who had seen visitors to the house since Thursday afternoon.
Armidale residents have been shocked by the death and left frightened by reports Mr Hutchinson's head had been removed.
Michelle Hutchins was forced to send her 18-year-old son Adam to her sister's home to reassure his 15 and 13-year-old cousins left home alone while their parents were away in Sydney over the
weekend.
Their mother, Margaret Turner said she received the phone call in Sydney from her panicked children.
"They called to say they were very, very frightened," Mrs Turner said.
"I had to send Adam around to stay with them to calm them down.
"This will just be a ghost town now because it will just make everyone feel unsafe – it almost makes me want to go back to Sydney."
Maryanne Person, who has lived at her Donnelly St home for 55 years, around the corner from the crime scene, speculated the death was a result of robbery gone wrong.
She said, however, that if he had been decapitated it was possibly something more sinister.
"There's a lot of tales going around and somebody said his head was off," Mrs Person said.
"If they chopped the man's head off they must have hated him."
