Cirencester remains: Dead man's identity still a mystery

An inquest has failed to shed any light on the identity of a man whose body was found in woodland.

Skeletal remains were discovered off the A419 near Cirencester by workmen on 1 May, 2018.

Despite a police investigation and DNA checks across Europe, he has not been identified.

In his narrative conclusion, assistant Gloucestershire coroner Roland Wooderson described it as a "most unusual inquest".

He admitted he could not answer who the man was, or how, when or where he had died.

"There were no signs of skeletal trauma and the clothing was intact. There was no blood seen on the clothing," he said.

"It is not known how he got there but the nature of the area and the items the man was carrying suggest he was on a journey and had walked to his final resting place."

Items including a raincoat, sunglasses, trainers, a wind-up torch and a radio were found with the body

The remains were found by a forestry worker in a beech copse by the road which runs between Cirencester and Stroud.

The coroner said it was a remote area, rarely - if ever - visited by forestry workers and police considered the location to be a "very unlikely homicide site" because of the lack of vehicle access.

'Many questions remain'

An examination by Dr Lucina Hackman found no signs of trauma and DNA taken from a bone found no matches in any British missing persons' databases or with Interpol.

Dr Hackman concluded the man was of Caucasian ancestry and likely to be aged between 33-55.

In April last year, Gloucestershire Police released an image created by experts at Liverpool John Moores University in the hope someone would recognise him.

"The police have been most thorough in their investigations but despite their exhaustive enquiries and the efforts of other professionals, many, many questions remain," added Mr Wooderson.