Hamilton police are investigating after a man’s body was found beside a vacant church in central Hamilton on Sunday.

The man’s body was found in an alleyway beside the church on Main Street East Sunday morning. The cause of death has not been determined.

Friends and family identified the man as 29-year-old Daniel May. May’s step-sister, Caitlin Sullivan, says he was last heard from just after midnight.

“He talked to his girlfriend at one o’clock in the morning and he seemed intoxicated. That’s all we knew, that’s all we knew, and then I rushed down here.”

May’s family said Daniel grew up in Hamilton but was living in Burk’s Falls in Northern Ontario after problems with drugs.

Caitlin recalled Daniel as “a great guy. He was cleaning up, he was living in Burk’s Falls with his girlfriend and then he came back to visit somebody and this happened.”

Residents of the area say the vacant church is a place where homeless people often reside.