Cold case detectives hope to end years of torment over body finds

A COLD case review announced yesterday could end years of torment for families by finally identifying dead people whose identities have remained a mystery for more than 20 years.

North Yorkshire Police have reopened the files on a number of deaths dating back to the 1980s where it proved impossible to find out whose remains had been found.

They include a body found at the top of Sutton Bank in 1981, remains recovered from the River Ouse and a man who drowned in Scarborough Harbour 21 years ago.

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Yesterday police appealed for help to try to establish the identity of a middle-aged man discovered in the resort's harbour at 6.15am on May 4 1989.

They issued an artist's impression based on a mortuary photograph. He could have been aged anywhere between 30 and 60, was white, clean shaven, weighing approximately 12 stone, and was 5ft 10in tall, with brown eyes. He had a full head of black collar length hair that was turning grey and possibly combed into a centre parting. His teeth were all natural with fillings and gold capping.

Pathologists found a scar and swelling just above his left ankle which were caused by a fracture that had not healed properly and may have caused him to limp.

When his body was recovered he was wearing dark brown cotton trousers, a plain beige cotton shirt, grey slip-on shoes, black socks and a long green, nylon anorak with a zipped hood. He also wore a Sekonda wrist watch.

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Det Sgt Stuart Thompson said: "Someone out there must know who he is. If you lost someone in 1989 and you don't know what happened to them then this man could be that person."

He stayed at a hotel in Alma Square, Scarborough, for two nights and left on May 1 1989 when he was was last seen alive.

The harbour master heard a splash on the evening. At 6.15 the next day his body was spotted floating in the harbour. He had few possessions. An inquest recorded an open verdict in November 1989 and he was cremated in January 1990.

There were no suspicious circumstances and the only clue was a Greater Manchester Police property bag containing toiletries, a Barclays Bank cheque stub and cheque book cover, a newspaper, a used rail ticket from Blackburn to Todmorden and a train timetable.

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Greater Manchester Police were spoken to at the time but did not know who the man was.

The property bag could have meant he had a record, was picking up some found property, or that he was given the bag by someone else.

His fingerprints were taken at the time, but was then no national fingerprint database as there is now. Comparisons would have had to have been made by Scotland Yard.

In those days there was no national register of missing persons either, so matching a body to a missing person was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Anyone with any information should contact Det Sgt Thompson on 0845 60 60 24 7.

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