Investigation into death of man found on Hackney Road
Channel: SA Police News
Date: 10/04/2014

Acting Superintendent Denise Gray of Eastern Adelaide Local Service Area speaks to the media about the death of a man found unconscious on Hackney Road, Adelaide on March 15. Read more below:

A man found unconscious last month near the intersection of Hackney Road and Athelney Avenue, Hackney, died yesterday in hospital.

Mark Langford, 42, was found by a police patrol at 1.25am on Saturday 15 March and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition.
Acting Superintendent Denise Gray, from the Eastern Adelaide Local Service Area, today appealed for public assistance to help police determine what happened to Mr Langford and to help bring his family some closure.

"Mr Langford was found with serious head injuries, however, it is not clear if he sustained these in an accidental fall, or met with foul play.

"Mr Langford's phone, wallet and jewellery were all found with him and there were no obvious signs of a struggle.

"CCTV shows Mr Langford walking north past the Woolworths Caltex at 1.15 a.m. He is by himself with no-one following. Just ten minutes later he was found by police," she said.

Police want to hear from anyone who knows what happened to Mr Langford in that 10 minute window.

"At this time we are keeping an open mind," she said. "But we don't have a clear picture of the circumstances of how Mr Langford suffered his injuries.

"We have information that Mr Langford may have been standing in the middle of Rundle Street near Little Capper Street about 1:10am - attempting to stop a taxi, but the taxi drove on. We are asking the taxi driver to come forward.

"We are also aware of an assault at the Hackney Hotel around 12:40am, where a man was hit by another man who got out of a taxi with two other men. The trio had apparently been to a buck's show.

"Quite likely these separate incidents have nothing to do with Mr Langford, but we would like to close off those lines of enquiry.

"Detectives have spoken with a number of people in the area, and have consulted with Major Crime investigators about the incident, but we have no indication that he has died as a result of a criminal act."

"No matter how insignificant people think their information is, I would urge them to come forward at this time," Acting Supt Gray said.

If you have any information that can help please call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.