Homicide detectives investigate death of elderly man after fight at Mount Clear home

Homicide detectives are investigating an assault near Ballarat that left an elderly man hospitalised for weeks before he died, the latest in a string of deaths in the area this year.

An elderly man has died after a fight broke out in a Mount Clear home last month. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Homicide detectives are investigating an assault near Ballarat that left an elderly man hospitalised for weeks before he died.

Police say a fight broke out between an 82-year-old man and a 39-year-old man at a house on Highfield Ave Mount Clear, just south of Ballarat, on November 27.

The elderly man from Mount Clear was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but he died on Friday.

His exact cause of death remains unclear but the Homicide Squad are assisting in the investigation.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the pair knew one another and police arrested the 39-year-old man, who does not have a fixed address, at the scene.

Officers from the Ballarat Family Violence Investigation Unit charged that man with assault and he has been remanded in custody since his arrest.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

The 82-year-old’s death is the latest in a string of deaths in the area this year.

In April, 23-year-old Hannah McGuire’s body was found in a burnt-out car in Scarsdale, about 25km from Ballarat.

Her ex-boyfriend, 21-year-old Lachlan Young, has pleaded not guilty to her murder and will have his trial fast-tracked to the Supreme Court.

Mother-of-five Rebecca Young was allegedly killed by her partner Ian Butler in a suspected murder-suicide on February 15.

Just days before that, Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy, 54, vanished while going for a run on February 4.

23-year-old Patrick Orren Stephenson has been charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty.