Bali police have confirmed they suspect a perpetrator was behind the grisly death of Australian man Stephen Richardson, revealing a second set of footprints had been found at the Sanur villa.
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Mr Richardson's naked body was discovered on a bloodied mattress on Monday afternoon by his friend Garry Croker, who jumped the fence of his villa after becoming concerned that he had not seen the 63-year-old for a couple of days. "I didn't want to see that," he told Fairfax Media.
Asked if the second person in the villa had been a woman, Denpasar police's criminal investigative chief Aris Purwanto said: "We have not reached that far, we suspect (a person) but we don't know who."
He would not be drawn on whether the second set of footprints were smaller than the victim's.
"Possibly there was an act of violence," Mr Aris said. He confirmed nothing had been stolen from the villa at Jalan Danau Poso in the seaside town of Sanur.
Mr Richardson, a former maritime worker affectionately nicknamed "the Ape", had been living alone after his partner, Karen East, returned to Darwin for work about a month ago.
An officer who accompanied Ms East into Sanglah morgue in Denpasar said she cried and covered her face when shown the body.
A friend posted on Facebook that Mr Richardson was a "hugely respected Darwin Maritime Union of Australia Seafarer and many around Australia would know him".
"We are deeply saddened at the tragic news of the death of Stephen "the Ape" Richardson. Ape was discovered dead in suspicious circumstances in his Bali home yesterday," one tribute said that ended with "RIP Brother".
"We give our love and support to his partner Karen and family at this difficult and sad time. We will endeavour to keep members informed about arrangements for honouring and paying respects to this great man in the coming days."
An autopsy was carried out on Thursday afternoon but doctors were yet to complete the official report. Mr Aris said 25 witnesses had now been interviewed but the investigation wass continuing.
The head of Bali's police forensic lab, Koesnadi, said police suspected that blood found at the scene belonged to more than one person.
"We are now preparing the samples to be further tested in Jakarta," he said.
"The blood spots were taken from many spots at the scene - from the bedroom, the living room, kitchen, porch, the door, the walls."
Mr Koesnadi said there were also signs the body had been moved from where the death was suspected to have taken place.
"We suspect the bedroom because of the amount of blood found there," he said.
The forensic doctor at Sanglah morgue, Dudut Rustyadi, said that an external investigation had found wounds caused by blunt and sharp objects.
"Based on the location of the wounds it could be homicide, not an accident or suicide," he said.
