By Marta Pascual Juanola, Hannah Kennelly and Alexander Darling
Homicide detectives continue to probe the death of elderly businessman Paul Waylen following the discovery of his body inside his sprawling property in Cowes on Phillip Island.
The entrepreneur’s 55-year-old son was released from custody without charge on Tuesday night after being held under police guard in a Melbourne hospital.
Businessman Paul Waylen was found dead at a property on Phillip Island on Monday.
Officers found the 55-year-old with serious self-inflicted wounds in the small town of Ventnor, a few kilometres from Cowes, soon after Waylen’s body was found on Monday morning.
Victoria Police said on Wednesday that an autopsy had been conducted and the cause of death remained unknown.
Police were called to the property at the intersection of Church Street and Justice Road in Cowes about 10.20am on Monday, where they discovered Waylen’s body.
While police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the death, it was too early to know whether any charges would be laid, said Detective Inspector Dean Thomas of the homicide squad on Tuesday.
He did not reveal the nature of the son’s injuries or where he was found.
“We are very reliant on a cause of death, so we’ve just got to wait and see what that tells us.
“We don’t want to jump the gun with anything. We’ve got to keep an open mind, and we’ve got to be aware that there could be a number of different circumstances.”
Thomas said police were keen to speak to Waylen’s son to get some “clarity as to what exactly has happened”. Property records indicate he bought a property in Ventnor in 2021.
“We’re speaking to family, we’re speaking to friends, and we are speaking to anybody that knows those people to help us piece together what happened,” Thomas said.
He said police also wanted to speak to anyone who witnessed or heard anything unusual in Cowes or Ventnor around the time of the incident.
In an unrelated incident, police were called to O’Brien Lane in the Latrobe Valley town of Moe before 4.30pm on Monday following reports of a seriously injured man on the ground with multiple wounds.
“A 32-year-old male was found in that location in a quite distressed state,” Thomas said.
The man was treated by paramedics for critical injuries but died at the scene.
Thomas said homicide squad detectives worked late into the night to try to determine the circumstances of the man’s death, which was being treated as suspicious.
He said the man had been with a woman in the hours before his death. The pair had caught a bus from Commercial Road, Morwell, to George Street, Moe, arriving about 3.20pm. From there, they met another man. The trio then walked to O’Brien Lane and entered a building police described as a vacant office block, which had been used as a squat.
“Within a short period of time our deceased has exited the property clearly injured … and he’s collapsed on the ground,” Thomas said.
A 26-year-old woman of no fixed address was interviewed by police and released pending further inquiries. The second man has also been interviewed.
“We’re still trying to identify some other persons that were at that location,” Thomas said.
He said the dead man had been wearing a red top with a blue jacket and peaked cap. The woman with him at the time had a bright yellow jacket, was also wearing a cap and was carrying several bags. Thomas urged anyone who saw them to contact police.
Anyone with further information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at crimestoppersvic.com.au.
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