'Microscopic, forensic detail' of detective work

Photo: Phil Spencer

THE hunters . . . Detective Sergeant John Coleman and detective constables Kelly Bragg and Nichola Chapman

DETECTIVE Sergeant John Coleman, flanked by his two female detective constables, left court last night with a coroner's praise ringing in their ears.

For more than a year, John's team have kept an owl-like focus on a long and winding road to identify a man who travelled 4,000 from Pakistan to die a lonely death on Saddleworth Moor.

And despite the praise from coroner Simon Nelson, the challenging counterpoint for the detectives is a series of heavyweight questions he presented.

Determining an open verdict on Mr Lytton, who had lived in Pakistan for the last 10 years, the questions will resonate with anyone drawn to this unpredictable, often impenetrable trail, of David Lytton's last journey.

We know he returned to the UK from Lahore in December 2015 and he did not contact his family (one thought he may have already died) or his long-time "soulmate".

We know he was immensely clever, a loner who could be loving, amusing, was fastidious about clothes, yet when he lived in London, did not even own a fridge.

Persistence

We know all this almost microscopic, forensic detail because John Coleman and detective constables Kelly Bragg and Nichola Chapman have meticulously gleaned every scrap on his life by sheer persistence.

It was a stellar investigation and triumphed in finally giving the man dubbed "Neil Dovestones" his own name ­- despite him carrying no identification.

But the conclusion has triggered a tumbling cascade of unanswered questions: Why David Lytton made a solo journey north . . . and why he travelled to Greenfield, a place he'd never been before.

And, perhaps the most bewitching of all: why he asked for "the way to the top of the mountains."

Because outside his rail tickets (one a return to London), an empty medicine bottle for thyroid tables but contained traces of strychnine that killed him, and £130 in £10 notes, we still can't fathom the fascination that drew him to these brooding moors.

Why did he pay cash upfront for a five-night stay in a London hotel, buy a return rail ticket to Manchester valid for a month and never go back?

After spending more than a year sharing their highs and lows, I think despite the inquest conclusion, the three detectives still search for their own answers. Maybe one day they will discover the real reason why the former mystery man came to Saddleworth moor.