In a nondescript lane behind busy Belmore Road in Riverwood, Steven Ripley stood barefoot in the middle of the bitumen and shouted a traditional, and devastating, Maori farewell to his brother.

It was at that location just hours earlier that his brother, 21-year-old Roddy Carino, was discovered lying unconscious on the road with critical injuries.

NSW police officers search the crime scene on Price Lane in Riverwood. Photo: Kate geraghty

The young father was taken to St George Hospital, but could not be saved. Police would not reveal the nature of his injuries, but said he had not been shot or stabbed and his death was being treated as suspicious.

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A grief-stricken Mr Ripley, 23, said his brother was just 100 metres from home when he was attacked in the laneway.

"I'm totally gutted. I just don't want to believe this has happened," he said.

NSW police officers search bins in Price Lane. Photo: Kate geraghty

"He was a good boy, he was a good young man. He didn't deserve this."

Mr Ripley also said his brother was a "loving and caring father" to his three-year-old son.

"We don't know what has happened so far ... and we just ask that if anybody knows anything please come forward and say something."

Police tape at Price Lane, Riverwood. Photo: Kate geraghty

Just how Mr Carino came to be lying in the lane is now the focus of a police investigation centred on an anonymous phone call that was made from a nearby public phone box, alerting police that the man was injured.

That phone call, at 12.50am, was made from a phone box on Coleridge Street, which intersects with Price Lane, and could prove vital in determining how Mr Carino was injured, Acting Superintendent Bingham said.

"We would be calling at this stage for the person that made the phone call from the telephone box, if they could recontact police and assist us with our inquiries," he said.

Friends and family of Roddy Carino, near the lane where he was found unconscious. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

Police received a second phone call a short time later when two people, one of whom was friends with Mr Carino, spotted him lying unconscious in the laneway while he was on the way to work.

"As he was walking to the train station he saw him and he called the police and called his brother," said Mr Carino's close friend, Markira Galea, 19.

Acting Superintendent Bingham said the pair attempted to save the young man's life and were assisting police with their investigation.

Friends and family gathered in Price Lane. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

"We are aware that one of those witnesses actually assisted with first aid at the time, and the other one made a separate phone call to triple zero.

"We'd be asking if there's anyone else that was down there, or anyone that used that phone box or saw anything in the area just before 1am this morning, if they could contact us here at St George or through Crime Stoppers."

Ms Galea said it appeared her best friend had exited Riverwood train station and was walking to his nearby home when he stopped in the lane to relieve himself, and was attacked.

Roddy Carino, 19, died in St George Hospital. Photo: Facebook

"We are just all in shock," she said.

"He literally just had to walk down this alleyway and there was his house." 

Price Lane stretches for about 100 metres between Coleridge Street and Morotai Avenue and runs directly behind the busy strip of Belmore Road.

On Wednesday morning, forensic police dusted the phone box for fingerprints and detectives spoke to people whose businesses back onto the laneway, hoping their security footage would reveal the identity of Mr Carino's attacker.

Once the police tape was lifted Mr Ripley and his friends walked solemnly to the place where his brother was felled and performed the haka, their powerful chants reverberating through the streets.

Mr Ripley's friend, Elise, said the ceremony was "a cleansing to send him off, so we don't leave him here".

She urged the offender or offenders responsible for Mr Carino's death to hand themselves in.

"Whoever did this, I hope you come clean about it. Just come forward, get it all over and done with," she said.

"It shouldn't be like this. Three days towards Christmas, what is this?"