A retired crime intelligence officer has been found dead in his car in Norkem Park‚ east of Johannesburg.

The man's body was found on Wednesday. Eyewitness News said the man had been involved in working on what is known as "the grabber"‚ used to listen into phone calls. 

Police spokesman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said: "We have opened a case of murder and believe he may have been strangled. We are awaiting the postmortem results. We don't know what the motive for the suspected murder is at this stage."

The victim has not yet been named.