'A very gruesome discovery': Mechanic discovers body in vehicle at used car lot

Sargis Oushana knew something was wrong as soon as he got close to a vehicle on the Piccadilly Motors lot in London, Ont.

"It's a very gruesome discovery,” he told CTV News London on Wednesday.

Oushana is an apprentice mechanic at the shop that maintains, repairs and sells vehicles. He says his concerns started with a smell and then when he noticed a cluster of flies. He cracked the door open and confirmed his worst fear, the discovery of a decaying body. Oushana says police were called immediately.

"It breaks my heart to see someone go out like that,” he says.

The discovery was made around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Police were on the scene throughout the evening and say the death is not suspicious, but didn’t release a cause.

Piccadilly Motors owner Elyas Samano says he's been operating the business at York Street and Maitland Street since 1998, and there have always been issues with operating in a downtown location.

Social agencies like the Men's Mission and the Salvation Army Centre of Hope are not far from his business, but Samano says he noticed more issues arising with the addition of the safe consumption location half a block away.

"They sit in the cars, you know,” he says. “They break the window."

Samano says he’s now finding more people sleeping on the property overnight.

Brian Lester is executive director of Regional HIV/AIDS Connection, the agency that oversees the Care Point Safe Consumption Site. He stresses, "We're actually preventing death. We're not contributing to or causing death."

He says it's concerning when people make a link to Carepoint when tragedy occurs because there are a number of issues the city is facing.

"When I think about the individual who was pulled out of the river recently, that was an issue tied to homelessness. Now we have another individual that's been discovered, tragically, decomposing in a car. To me, that's the root of what the challenge is and it doesn't really link to the Carepoint program,” he says.

Lester says the program has actually helped direct many people to programs and services that have resulted in a better life for them. He says that also reduces a burden on the health care system and the criminal justice system.

He also points out that Carepoint has only been at the York Street location for less than two months. It is currently operating out of a trailer on the site, but a state-of-the-art consumption centre is nearing completion.

Oushana says discovering the body is something that will stay with him for his entire life. He says more has to be done to prevent circumstances like this.

"My heart goes out to these people. I work here every day and I see it every day and the city's got to do more,” he says.