Every so often I get fascinated by random stories I read in the news. The latest was about an unidentified man found dead on Saddleworth Moor back in December. The police were able to trace his journey from London to Manchester but then the trail went cold until he arrived at the moor itself. What makes this story macabre is that he died from strychnine poisoning, a particularly nasty way to go. Nobody knows who he is nearly 6 months on.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/14/mystery-saddleworth-moor-who-was-neil-dovestone

Intrigued that somebody could turn up dead and nobody know anything about them, I stumbled across a page ran by the police showing all of the unidentified bodies across the UK. Lo and behold there is one from Hartlepool. A young lad hanged himself near Seal Sands back in 1981 and they were never able to identify him, even though he was found only hours after he killed himself. Very strange!

Makes you wonder about all the stuff bandied about around the high-profile and powerful paedos and those allegations of people just disappearing.

Except that these deceased people haven't disappeared, their bodies (DNA, fingerprints, gnashers and all) have turned up but they apparently can't be matched to any known individual through medical or police records.

Which is seriously strange!

For me it's the sadness of the fact they're pretty much forgotten. Perhaps there are people out there wondering what happened to some of them, but there are thousands of unidentified bodies across the UK and most will probably remain unidentified. Take the lad in Hartlepool - when I read about him and saw the word Greythorp immediately I thought merchant seaman. Might explain why a 20-year old something was never claimed...

Some rare theories in the comments to the article. Like he was probably from Pakistan because Ealing is close to Heathrow, so it would have been easy for him to go there and back. Very good article but some real nutjobs among the theorists.

I suppose what I was trying to say is that corpses turn up, but because of information suppression, they are 'unidentified'. Makes it easier if it is kids who have been through the care system as they often don't have loads of family looking out for them.

Remember first reading about this here.

Body now found: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-38757699

They found his body yonks ago didnt they?

*Body identified, rather......

I don't find it strange at all. We live in a society that isn't regimented. Most European states have ID cards making things easier in such ircumstances, we live in a free society with less restrictions and if you aren't in the system and have no identification or relationships with family to friends it is very easy be unidentified especially if the person takes steps to hide their identity. If there us no one to care, it can end like this.
Sad, but that's life.

Given you have raised this shows you know nothing about DNA fingerprinting. How the hell can a sample prior to the invention of the DNA database be checked against it? If no family members come forward it basically impossible to check the DNA against anything.

Erm, they weren't far off to be honest! He'd been living in Pakistan for the last 10 years and they finally traced him by scanning passenger lists from flights to Heathrow from that region. They found him on a flight from Lahore to Heathrow two days before he ended up at Saddleworth. They have no idea why he chose Saddleworth to go and die though....

Sorry Compo, but I am appealing for a personal hearing before the ROT (Resurrected Old Threads) Panel on this one.

First of all, this thread was disinterred after 8 months for no good reason and it and my comment should have been allowed to rest in peace.

Second, what are you on about? The UK National DNA database was set up in 1995.This bloke turned up dead in 2015, by which time there were 5.7 million DNA samples on the database. So, along with fingerprints and dental and other medical records, it is a rather useful way of checking unidentified dead people against registers of missing persons.

The bloke was found? As good a reason as any to resurrect it...

Surely your DNA is on the database only if you've been arrested?

Going to start a new thread with a question about DNA!!!!

I can probably answer it with a Simpsons video...

Could DNA be used to solve the mystery of money man and co-owner Peter Goldberg/Arber? he's been missing for some time now.

Programme on more 4 at 9pm tonight about this


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Sorry 4seven. Channel 140 on sky


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