Police are investigating the death of a male septuagenarian whose body was found bound and gagged in his home at D’Urban Backlands late yesterday afternoon.

Dead is George Cadogan, 78 , of 180 Century Palm Gardens, D’Urban Backlands.

Reports said that the discovery was made around 17:00 hrs yesterday, by a relative who had gone to the home to visit Cadogan some time during the morning. When the man arrived at the house and did not get a response to his calls, he left a papaw outside the house where he thought Cadogan would have seen it.

Later in the afternoon, the visitor returned to the house and found that the fruit had not been removed. He called out again, and got no response. The man became apprehensive and climbed through an open window into the house.

There he found Cadogan’s body bound and in a chair. He was clad in a boxer-trunks and vest, gagged, and there was blood in his mouth.

This newspaper understands that the house was also ransacked.

The police were alerted and the body was taken to the Lyken Funeral Home.