Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be
exploring an unidentified person case. The Sudbury Unidentified Man, as he's come to
be known, was a mystery from the beginning, but some theories have come
to the surface. This episode is about an unidentified person with some reference to
injury, sustained and non graphic dismemberment of a body, so listed discretion is
advised. The River Stour is around forty seven miles long and is located in
East Anglia. It passes through the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex.
Sudbury is a market town which sits on the River Stour and therefore is a
large feature of the town, so much so that Sudbury used to be an
important riverport. On the twenty seventh of August twenty twenty, a passer by
who was close to the river spotted something floating. The member of the public
had noticed two bin bags and to them they looked a little suspicious. This
person was suspicious enough about the bags that they decided to report them to a
ranger who at four point thirty five pm that day, contacted police officers attended
the scene, which was reported as being between Meadow Gates and Croft Bridge.
The bags were retrieved from the river and the contents were checked inside. Officers
discovered human bones and immediately the scene was cordoned off. The discovery of clearly
human bones was a rare occurrence, especially in that area when police needed to
try and figure out what exactly they had. Reports from the day that the
bags were found indicate that police were clearly treating this as a murder investigation.
From the outset, divers from the Metropolitan Police's Marine Policing Unit was called out
to assist the investigation and scoured the river for any other evidence that they may
be able to recover. This would prove to be fruitful as this police search
recovered another bimbag to add to the ones already found. Who was this person
and how had their bones ended up in the river in bimbags. The remains
themselves were sent off for a post mortem to try and establish some more about
the victim and to try and identify a possible cause of death. The objects
inside the bags themselves were immediate interest to the police, given that they may
point to how this crime had been committed or who buy In this case,
there was a lot of evidence left behind. The bags had been weighed down
using bricks, indicating that whoever had been involved in this crime had taken a
lot of time to try and conceal the body from being found. These bricks
were identified as Eastwood's flatting bricks and as well as these bricks, there was
also further carrier bags which had been filled with decorative stones. The bags which
these bricks and stones were found in were also of interest. One of the
bags was white with the word thinking of Bobs on the side. This bag
was known to have been produced between twenty thirteen and two thy fifteen. There
was also a bag from the shop Boots from around twenty twelve, and then
generic blue carrier bags which were known to come from market stalls or corner shops.
As well as this, officers discovered a number of air fresheners in the
bag which were used in commercial toilets. These reportedly gave off a very strong
chemical smell. Police investigated the source of these air fresheners and found out that
they were sold only business to business and were made by Jays at a factory
of mold in North Wales. These products became obsolete in twenty eleven and so
this gave police a possible indication for when these products were being put inside the
binbags. The analysis of the remains, however, would of course be key
to trying to understand who this person was, and his DNA was taken and
ran through the UK Missing Person's Bureau in the hope that they would be a
match. In September twenty twenty, however, it was revealed that this search
had not revealed anything. There was no match. Detective Chief Superintendent aim And
Bridger of Suffolk Police said the MPB holds records on every missing person in the
country and where DNA profiles have been obtained, these are held on their database.
We have run the initial profile we have of this individual through that database,
but have not had a match at this time. The use of DNA
forms a central part of the effort to identify the victim in this case.
This includes comparisons being made across a number of both national and international databases and
is likely to take some considerable time to complete. He also stated we're continuing
to appeal for anyone with information about this shocking discovery. To come forward,
someone must know who the deceased was or have information about who deposited the remains,
So please come forward and talk to us. Any information you give us
will be dealt with in confidence. Police were able to say that the victim
was of an athletic or a muscular build. This was a key detail for
anyone that might think they knew this person and could help someone to come forward.
The same BBC article from September twenty twenty stated that both Corey mckeeg and
Luke Durbin had been ruled out as being this unidentified man. In the next
couple of months of the investigation, the police tried to trace as many people
as possible in an effort to identify the man. They also appealed for anyone
who may have been in the area at the time, such as a man
that had been spotted swimming in the river around a week before the remains had
been found. The main stumbling block was trying to establish when the man had
died, given that this would really help the police to discover which timeframe they
were looking for. While they were waiting for this vital information, they were
asking for anyone with concerns about a missing relative or friend, or anyone who
knew someone acting suspicious to come forward as anything at that point could help the
investigation. It would take a year, however, for police to release the
information about the victim that their investigation had discovered. The forensic tests established that
the man had died between the years two thousand and eight to twenty twelve,
meaning that when they'd found the victim he could have been dead for between eight
to twelve years. The tests also established that the victim was in his late
fifties to early sixties when he was killed. He was of a medium build,
was of North European heritage and was around five feet nine inches tall.
Assistant Chief Constable Amonbridger stated, we said this would be a long and methodical
process and it's proven to be just so, especially due to the type of
specialist forensic testing that has been and continues to be taking place. Many of
the results that have come back then need to be subject to further tests and
so we still have a distance to go. At that time, Suffolk Police
had taken nearly one one hundred and fifty statements in reports and looked through two
hundred and thirty missing person reports However, they were yet to establish who this
victim was. More information would later be presented about the postmrtem and the forensic
testing that had been done on the bones. It was confirmed that the body
had been dismembered and this had been done cleanly. At the joints. They
had recovered part of the skull and jar, as well as the right and
left arm bones and the partial wrist bones. The complete lower right and left
legs and feet were also found. The arms, legs, and feet were
partially and one of the wristbones had a healed fracture. The arms and feet
were noted as bending inwards and upwards, which was possibly a result of the
way in which they'd been stored. Detective Superintendent Brown stated it would appear the
remains had been stored in dry, airless conditions for a number of years before
someone decided they needed to be disposed of. It could be that the people
responsible for his death took the decision to move the remains, or that someone
discovered them and, not wanting to engage with the police, decided to simply
dispose of them. There was some evidence found on the skull. The part
that was recovered had twenty seven deep lacerations on it. This, however,
was not fought with the victim's cause of death. One interesting absence from the
bin bags was the victim's hands. The police believed that this could have been
a deliberate action on the perpetrator his part and was a way of further trying
to conceal this man's identity. Police have discussed their hypothesis, saying, our
leading hypothesis is that this individual is very likely to have been the victim of
organized crime. The way the body was dismembered and the fact the hands are
missing bare the hallmarks are being done very deliberately and by people who knew what
they were doing. In twenty twenty one, police arrested a twenty six year
old man in connection with the case. Is reported that this man was arrested
in Sudbury and that he was also being charged with possession of Class A drugs
with intent to supply. Another man was also arrested on drugs charges, but
was not arrested in connection to the Sudbury murder. The twenty six year old
was never charged with any crime in relation to the unidentified man, and the
evidence for his arrest was never divulged. Police, however, did search a
proper in Sudbury. Following the arrest. Police further appealed for anyone to come
forward if they knew someone in their late fifties to early sixties who they were
concerned about or hadn't seen in a while, as they may be able to
help the investigation. They also wanted to know if anyone in the area had
noticed any binbags in unusual places such as ditches and hedgerows. In twenty twenty
two, police released an image that they wanted to distribute to the wider public.
The image was that of a man and a woman walking a dog and
pulling a suitcase. This couple were spotted on CCTV from the nineteenth of August
twenty twenty eight, days before the bones were recovered from the river. The
police stressed that they were being treated as witnesses and not suspects, and hope
that they may have seen something of note from the time. Police have confirmed
in an article from October twenty twenty three that searches for this man's identity are
ongoing and that missing person reports from local, regional and national databases are being
checked regularly, as well as DNA comparison from the UK and international databases.
So far, these searches have drawn a blank. The case was also featured
on Crime Watch Live and shown across the country in the hope that this would
jog someone's memory of a relative acquaintance, our colleague that they may have lost
touch with between the years two thousand and eight in twenty twelve. As of
March twenty twenty four, however, there has been no such breakthrough. Unidentified
person cases are heartbreaking and I always feel particularly bothered by them. I always
hope that they can be identified in the end, as I always think about
this person as someone's son. He may have been a dad, a brother,
or an uncle. He was known and loved by someone, and the
fact that this victim was in his late fifties to early sixties means he lived
a life somewhere and must have been known to people over those years. The
fact that organized crime may have been involved in this means unfortunately, their knowledge
of how to conceal crimes and evade the justice system means that this victim has
gone unnoticed all of these years. Who was this man, how and wir
had he become victim? To what police believe may have been an organized murder
or committed by hardened criminals. Police have stated until we know who this individual
is, we can't bring justice to them or their family. Who will also
allow us to understand their lifestyle and allow us to look at other lines of
inquiry to establish what may have happened to them, who may have been responsible
for it, and to ultimately bring those people to justice. If you knew
a man aged in his late fifties or early sixties at that time who suddenly
disappeared without a trace, then please contact us. This is the most crucial
part getting answers for this victim's family and possibly also getting justice for what happened
to their loved one. The police do have DNA for this person and so
they just need a match. If you think that you know anything about this
victim or this crime, please contact police on one oh one. Thank you
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this has been unseen the bo