Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The son of a 63-year-old man who died in mysterious circumstances in the Wellington suburb of Miramar says his father was a kind man who didn't deserve what happened.
A week ago, Abdulhassan Nabizadah was found critically injured on the corner of a Miramar street minutes after police were called to a home invasion just blocks away.
Police are yet to confirm if the two incidents are linked.
Now his family are desperate for answers, asking anyone who knows what happened to come forward.
'He was a great person, he was a kind person, a great dad'
Abdulhassan Nabizadah's eldest son John Nabizadah sat on the floor of his parents' sparsely furnished state house next to a framed portrait of his father.
"He was a great person, he was a kind person, a great dad.
"I didn't have to worry about anything, the family part of [things], he had the whole thing under control.
"But now, I don't know, it's just me getting lost here."
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Abdulhassan Nabizadah was working the late shift at Taylor Preston's meat processing plant Sunday 16 March, and he would have finished up at about midnight.
John Nabizadah said his mother woke at around 5am that morning to prepare food ahead of the day's fasting during Ramadan, but Abdulhassan Nabizadah was nowhere to be found.
The family's search grew steadily more urgent and they called friends and looked for his car in the streets near his work.
They had told police he was missing, and then got a call from officers that he had been admitted to Wellington Hospital.
He had cuts and bruises on his head. John Nabizadah said staff told him his father had brain damage.
They were told to say their goodbyes as there was nothing that could be done.
In the week since Abdulhassan Nabizadah died, his son said he kept going back to the scene on Totara Rd where his father was found.
He said he still did not know what could have diverted his father from his way home in the early hours of the morning, saying it was not on his route.
"[There was] no reason to be there ... it's a mystery for us.
"He was a kind person, he might have given someone a lift."
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
In new information released on Monday, police said inquiries now revealed Abdulhassan Nabizadah arrived at the street just before 12.30am that night, almost two hours before he was found critically injured.
Officers are looking for a white male of athletic build in relation to the home invasion in the area and are yet to determine whether there is a connection between the incidents.
Police have previously said the man was wearing gumboots.
They also want to speak with two people who may have been in the area at that time.
A man in fitness clothing and a blue top who was seen running on Darlington Road at around half past one on Monday morning, and another man seen walking down Camperdown Road from Totara Road about an hour earlier.
'He didn't deserve this'
On Monday morning the Nabizadah family are gathered, preparing chives from their parents' garden to make dumplings.
Fruit trees grow in the small backyard that is soaked with the rain being swept across the hilltop suburb of Strathmore.
John Nabizadah said he and his family were lost without Abdulhassan Nabizadah's good-natured guidance.
"He was a dad, he was a kind person, he was a family man, and he didn't deserve this.
"Please please, whoever knows anything help us find that person, whoever [did] it to him."
