Mr Daniel Hurlings (49) died on Saturday 21 June when he tried to enter his home through the bathroom window.

According to the communications officer at the Bishop Lavis police station, Sergeant November Filander, the police first thought it was a suicide attempt.

“Hurlings lost his house keys and was forced to climb through the bathroom window. He shared the house with his father and sister, who were away for the weekend,” Filander said.

Hurlings apparently got stuck when his belt hooked on the window frame. “He slipped and could not reach anything with his hands or his feet. The pressure on his diaphragm caused his death,” said Filander.

Mrs Beryl Constable, Hurlings’s neighbour for the past 30 years, said: “I heard someone shouting and a dog barking, but I thought it came from the house in the next road. My brother-in-law then came to tell us something was stuck in the window next door.”

Filander said Hurlings’s screams were probably faint because his torso was hanging inside the house and the rest of his body was hanging outside the house.

“We went to check and saw that Daniel was stuck in the window. We tried to help, but noticed that he was not responding and had already died,” Constable said.

Hurlings was an active community member. “He never married and was a member of the community watch. He was well known in the community,” said Mr Herman Samuels, a colleague and friend of the deaceased.

“We worked together at Latino’s Jazz Club for the past four years. He was the most pleasant person I have ever met. He was a loved person in the Bishop Lavis community and will be missed by many people,” Samuels added.

Filander could not confirm for how long Hurlings was stuck in the window. He said the police are still awaiting the autopsy. “Hurlings’s key was, however, found in the garden at his house,” Filander said.