Po­lice dis­cov­ered the de­com­pos­ing bod­ies of two el­der­ly men in two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in San­ta Cruz on Tues­day.

In the first in­ci­dent, po­lice were called to a house on Saut D’eau Road, La Canoa, at 9.15 am, af­ter­res­i­dents re­port­ed a foul stench.

Po­lice and fire of­fi­cers vis­it­ed the area and on check­ing the home, found the body of 82-year-old Leroy James on a bed.

No marks of vi­o­lence were vis­i­ble on James’ body.

Neigh­bours re­port­ed that the last time they saw James alive was last Fri­day.

Hours lat­er, at 12.30 am, po­lice were called to Vicky Trace, La Canoa, where res­i­dents al­so re­port­ed a foul stench com­ing from a house.

On ar­rival, they found the body of 68-year-old Amim Pierre on a bed.

Neigh­bours said Pierre lived alone and was last seen alive on Sun­day, when a friend went to buy cig­a­rettes for him.

Po­lice in the North East­ern Di­vi­sion have urged res­i­dents to be par­tic­u­lar­ly vig­i­lant and ob­ser­vant of el­der­ly neigh­bours and make ef­forts to check on them reg­u­lar­ly for their own safe­ty.

One of­fi­cer said the dis­cov­ery of two bod­ies was a “par­tic­u­lar­ly trag­ic” de­vel­op­ment for the San­ta Cruz com­mu­ni­ty, adding that while it was un­like­ly the men were mur­dered, he hoped more res­i­dents would take the time to show in­ter­est and care for their el­der­ly neigh­bours.

“It isn’t a nice thing at all. We want our com­mu­ni­ties to be strong and we need the peo­ple in it to show care and en­sure they look out for each oth­er, es­pe­cial­ly if they know there are peo­ple with ill­ness­es or just old­er folks around,” the of­fi­cer said.

“It helps with crime-fight­ing and it’s al­so the neigh­bourly thing to do.”