Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today's episode ten of twelve
missing person cases throughout December. In this episode, we're going to be discussing
the unidentified man known as the Hampshire barn Man. This is a recent appeal
from Locate International and so I wanted to feature this on the twelve day episodes.
There is not a ton of information about this case and so it may
not be the longest, However, I believe it's important to feature. This
episode is about an unidentified person and does not contain any graphic details. However,
listener discretion is our ways advised. On the first of December twenty seventeen,
the area of the village of Mitchell Deva in Hampshire were searching in a
rural area of the village close to Baxley Cope's Lane. Officers were looking for
evidence in a recent robbery case. They began looking around a disused barn on
the land in relation to this robbery. However, instead of evidence of a
robbery, they found a person's remains. This was an unexpected discovery and one
that led to many questions who was this person, why were they there,
how had they died? They quickly ascertained that the remains were that of a
man who appeared to have died of natural causes. The man did not have
any signs of being attacked or restrained, and there were no injuries to point
to the fact that he had been killed by another person. There was,
also, however, not lots of concrete evidence as to who this man was
either. He did not have identification with him, and this caused some trouble
with trying to figure out who he was. The man has been described as
being aged between thirty five and fifty and approximately five feet eight inches tall.
He had brown hair, was clean shaven, and its reported that he may
have had an overbite. There has been additional information given that the man had
good dental care when he was younger, but that this had declined in later
life. The man was wearing a dark wooly hat, a blue fleece jacket,
tracksuit, bottoms, and size ten Wellington boots. He also had several
possessions with him which could indicate who he was. It reported that he had
with him a black caramore rucksack, as well as a sleeping bag. Inside
the bag there were various items, including a Martina coal book titled Close.
He had an old style Sony Walkman radio, an extra white T shirt and
some black pants, as well as four to five flannels and some gloves.
Also had an umbrella, a flask, a torch and a garden trowel.
In addition, he had some germaline, a packet of polos, a kit
kat and various other wrappers in his possession. It suggested that he was a
smoker as he had rizzler papers and tobacco with him, as well as some
medication which is listed as Zantac, which was used for indigestion and removing excess
stomach acid. A pair of reading glasses were also found close to the body.
One of the interesting items that was found in the barn was a Great
Britain Road atlas, and on top of the atlas was written the words Waterloo
with an arrow, then Winchester, as though suggesting the journey from Waterloo to
Winchester, and then the price twenty seven pounds twenty. This indicated a journey
by some means from Waterloo to Winchester, and this was linked to the man
given that he also had a street atlas of Winchester in his possession. This
gave investigators some clue that perhaps the man had been traveling around the UK.
The fact that all of the man's possessions could be bought from the UK also
suggested that he had been in the country a while. They also speculated that
the man may have been sleeping rough due to the fact that he had a
sleeping bag and multiple pairs of clothing with him. Initially, this was all
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary had to go on, given that there
was little information. In two thousand and nineteen, however, an appeal was
launched to try and track down people who may have known the man or have
come across him in the past. This appeal was successful, and it did
track down some witnesses who had spoken to him back in two thousand and twelve,
when he apparently asked them if he could camp in their garden in the
village of itch and Stow, around seven miles from where his body was eventually
found. These witnesses were able to provide some crucial information about the man that
could help They explained that the man had spoken good English, but with a
French accent. They confirmed that the man had been a smoker, and at
the time they met him he was unshaven. Despite the fact that glasses had
been found near the body, they said that he was not wearing them at
the time they met him. He told these witnesses several things about himself that
may help to track down his identity. He told them that he had been
in the French military, but that he didn't like it. He said,
as a result of an explosion during his time in the military, he was
deaf in one ear. He also stated that his mother and father were deceased.
He told them that he was walking across Britain and was on his way
to Island or Canada. He said he had been to Ireland before. On
the Missing Person's UK website, it's listed that the man had won once said
he was a gardener for Catherine Deneuve, who is a French actress and model
known for various film roles since the nineteen sixties. Whether the man told this
information to these particular witnesses is not listed, and therefore is unclear. All
of this information was of course of interest to investigators, as this meant that
the man had connections to France or a French speaking area of the world.
This helped investigators to target their appeals and their search in these particular areas.
Locate International became involved in the appeals for the Hampshire Barn Man and have listed
the appeal in both English and French. In a bid to reach more people
who may have known him. They also attempted to narrow down the search area
by conducting isotope analysis and the man's remains. This would give them detailed information
about the area that the man had lived in during his life, his diet
and would give a much better indication where his family may be from. The
isotope analysis looked at bone and teeth samples and was able to ascertain that he
had spent his early years roughly until the age of twelve, in any of
the areas of southeastern France, Corsica or western Switzerland. During this time,
he had a diet rich with fish. During this analysis, pollutants were found,
which suggested to scientists that he had lived in a sizable town or city
during his life. This gave investigators much more to go on and they were
able to at least pinpoint the areas that they could target with appeals. Locate
International have appealed for information various times over the past six years and have tried
to get information from anyone from these areas who may be missing a loved one.
Dave Grimstead told the BBC just this month he died alone, but we
want to make sure he has not forgotten after his death. Doug Utting from
the Serious Case Review Team at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said in the
same article. Through this new appeal, I hope we can hear from people
in those areas that recognize the man described as someone they may know and who
they have not seen or heard from since twenty twelve. If you know anything
about the Hampshire Barn man, or recognize any of these details, then please
contact either Missing People UK or Locate International to provide your information, no matter
how small. I will link these in the show notes. Please also share
the appeal with anyone you may know in any of these target areas, because
any exposure could help. Thank you for listening to episode ten of our twelve
Days of Missing Person episodes throughout the set. Listen in next to episode eleven.
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on social media. As always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen the sh