NT Police calling for witnesses after 19-year-old found dead near Undoolya Station

A teenager’s body discovered on a dirt road outside Alice Springs on New Year’s Day has sparked a major police investigation. Read the first breakthrough police have made in the first 24-hours of the case.

A 19-year-old man’s body was found on a road near the historic Undoolya Station.

A teenager’s body has been discovered abandoned on a desert road outside Alice Springs on New Year’s Day sparking a major police investigation.

NT Police have confirmed a 19-year-old’s body was found lying on Undoolya Road, near the historic Undoolya Station, 10km east of Alice Springs on Monday.

Police said a woman was driving beyond the end of the sealed section of road when she spotted his dead body and called emergency services at 12.34pm.

Police were initially unable to identify the young man as he had no identifying documents on him at the time.

However on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst confirmed he was an 19-year-old Alice Springs man of African descent with a dark complexion.

The investigation is currently treating the incident as a suspicious death.

Mr Wurst was not able to confirm the nature of the young man’s injuries, or if it was suspected that he was moved there after an incident at another location.

However he said it was believed the 19-year-old was only at the scene for a short time before his body was discovered.

“We’re waiting on the forensic pathologist to assess the deceased,” he said.

“Within that crime scene are a number of pieces of evidence that have been located and they’ll all be used and examined thoroughly to assist us in our investigation.

“We’ll examine all lines of inquiry that lead us to his movements in the last number of hours and days leading up to his death.”

Mr Wurst said identifying the young man was the “first big step in the investigation for us”, with police now talking to his family, friends and the African community in Alice Springs looking for information that may have led to his death.

Mr Wurst said the loss of this young man was a “tragedy”, and a particularly devastating way for the Alice Springs community to start the New Year.

“He’s a young man who’s passed away, whose family will no longer have him for this year and for every year going forward,” he said.

He said crime scene investigators were still at the scene collecting evidence, while an autopsy would be conducted within the next 24 hours.

Mr Wurst said the cause of death was still unknown.

The road towards Undoolya Station was closed for most of New Year’s Day.

He said the woman who found the body was a worker from the Undoolya Station, the oldest cattle station in the Northern Territory at 152 years old.

The road towards Undoolya Station was closed for most of New Year’s Day, with Mr Wurst saying it continued to be an active crime scene as of Tuesday afternoon.

“We do ask that no persons travel out that way, it is a closed section of road,” he said.

Mr Wurst has called on anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage, particularly from eastern Alice Springs from Undoolya Road between the intersections of Kurrajong Drive and Spearwood road between 10am to 1pm, to call 131 444 and quote Job NTP2400000232.

He said there were no concerns about a risk to the general community in relation to this incident.