The Body on the Moor..

A BBC production.. ( An interesting mystery from England )

It was the position of the body which somehow seemed strange. The cyclist who found the man thought he looked like he was having a rest, although it was bitterly cold and the rain was torrential. The Chew Track, which runs between two reservoirs, is steep. The dead man was positioned on his back perfectly in line with the slope. Stuart Crowther saw the body while out on one of his regular bike rides.

More often than not, people are carrying something from which they can be identified - a mobile phone, credit cards, a travel card. But this man had nothing. No wallet, no keys. No clue to who he was. Coleman says it is not unheard of to find no forms of ID on a body. But on such occasions, the police usually find it is just a case of matching the body with someone who is reported missing. Not this time. Six months have now passed since the man on the moor lay down by the path and died, and still no-one has even the vaguest notion of who he is. There is only a description - height 6ft 1in, white, slim build, receding grey hair, blue eyes, large nose which might have been broken.

From the entrance to The Clarence, it is easy to point to the place where the walk to the Chew Track begins, just as Robinson did for the visitor on that Friday afternoon.  I told him there’s not enough daylight for him to get there and back today. He just thanked me and asked me again for the directions, which I repeated to him. And he just set off.” The body was found about 21 hours later. The cause of death was - for modern Britain - extremely unusual. The man on the moor had died from strychnine poisoning.

To read the story scroll from the link worth a few of your Minutes.

www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: skywatcher44

Just read that article myself (and was going to post - but you beat me to the punch!)

Very interesting. Wonder if they'll be able to trace back the details re: the surgery. Be interesting to see what they find out, if anything.

Was very well put together I thought as well.

a reply to: youcanttellthepeople

Sorry.. I had just scrolled through and thought it an interesting piece to pass on. The Pakistan connection is most interesting..

a reply to: skywatcher44

What an interesting story!

The professor's words:
'The tragedy is that someone can be so alone in life to go off and no one misses them'

Sad.

a reply to: skywatcher44

Without a doubt, that report, is a work of art from the simple style of the words we read to the equally simple and complete visuals (lovingly without a single video). From my perspective in middle American and with some training in words and visual arts, I must repeat, it is a work of art and solely British art, if seen more as an idealized essay in English life as it was and evidently still exists in some forms and places.

a reply to: skywatcher44

Most interesting story, and I have to say, the face shown looks so sad. Shame no one knows who this man was, and how he was killed. I wonder if they could trace the poison, perhaps. Look for elderly people in his age range that might be missing and not reported. Maybe someone is collecting benefits in his name, and that's why he was killed.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

I believe it was a suicide.. long planned. He did not want anyone that knew him to find out. May he rest in peace with no regrets.

a reply to: skywatcher44

The pub landlord spoke to him. Does he remember the man having an accent? If he does, it doesn't say.

That would be a big clue.

originally posted by: ozzyhoss
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

I believe it was a suicide.. long planned. He did not want anyone that knew him to find out. May he rest in peace with no regrets.

That's possible, but it's still sad that no one even knows who he was! No friend, no family member, no coworker, not even a vendor of some sort that remembers him.

Another thread reminded me to check on any progress in this case. The police intended to contact hospitals in Pakistan to check on the leg implant ? They ended with 15 possible Hospitals ? and some publicity in Pakistan with no success as yet ?

Tests revealed that the plate fixed to the unknown man’s leg was manufactured by a Pakistani company which supplied just 15 hospitals in the country. X-ray images have been shared with the Pakistan Orthopaedic Society in a bid to narrow down the search. A number of theories about his possible identity of the unidentified male have been mooted and disproved. One theory was that he was the childhood survivor of an infamous 1949 crash which claimed 24 lives. But it was disproved when the real-life boyhood survivor of the crash, Stephen Evans, came forward. It was also briefly believed that he could have been Irish grandfather Hugh Toner, who went missing from a hospital in County Armagh in 1994. However DNA testing proved he was not the same man found on the hillside.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk...

Well now the guy has finally been identified.

The identity of man whose death sparked worldwide interest after his body was found on Saddleworth Moor has finally been established. David Lytton, 67, from London, was discovered at Dove Stone Reservoir on the moor on 12 December 2015. A court has heard he flew into London Heathrow from Lahore, Pakistan, two days before his body was found. He was identified from photos from a passenger list and picked up on CCTV in London. Police believe he took his own life. Heywood Coroner's Court heard his body was discovered fully clothed and lying prone on the ground above the reservoir in Greater Manchester. Mr Lytton, who had lived in Pakistan for 10 years, had no wallet, mobile phone or other identification and remained unidentified despite numerous public appeals and the release of CCTV footage of his last known movements. Police said a "provisional" cause of death had been determined as "strychnine poisoning". The toxin is now used primarily as a pesticide, particularly to kill rats. Strychnine, while regulated in the UK, is "widely used" in Pakistan, detectives said.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Interesting that the guy had previously changed his name ?

A mystery man who was found dead on Saddleworth Moor had previously changed his name. David Lytton's body was discovered at Dove Stone Reservoir in Greater Manchester on 12 December 2015. He was born David Lautenberg on 21 April 1948 but his name changes to Lytton on the electoral register in 1987. The 67-year-old flew into London Heathrow from Lahore, Pakistan, two days before his body was found. He was identified from photos from a passenger list and picked up on CCTV in London. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said his identity was confirmed as a result of a DNA match with a relative.

www.bbc.co.uk...