Mystery of man on the moors

VIDEO footage: the man is caught on camera as he arrives at Manchester Piccadilly train station

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MYSTERY continues to surround the identity of a man nearly a month after his body was found on the moors in Saddleworth.

Detectives have been left baffled by the bizarre case and, after Christmas and New Year passed without anyone reporting the man missing, they were today heading to London to try to shed light on the riddle.

Fresh CCTV footage of the stranger and has been released as police urge Chronicle readers to study the image to see if they can identify him

The casually-dressed stranger travelled by train from London to Manchester Piccadilly on December 11 and was found dead the following day on a track near Dovestone reservoir.

As well as rail tickets, £130 in £10 notes was found in his pockets.


Moor questions than answers...

COULD six seconds of tantalising video footage (link at bottom) taken less than 24 hours before this man was found dead at a popular tourist destination hold the clue to his identity?

It shows him, casually dressed, slowly walking down a flight of stairs at Piccadilly rail station.

But what happened before and after the start of his fateful journey on Friday, December 11, remains shrouded in mystery.

Currently he has no name and no identity. And though there are no suspicious circumstances, his death has provoked intense inquiries locally and in London.

The Metropolitan police issued CCTV footage of him boarding a tube train at Ealing Broadway around 9am. He was wearing a heavy brown jacket, a blue jumper, a white long-sleeved open-necked shirt, blue corduroy trousers and polished black slip-on shoes.

He bought a single journey ticket, costing £4.80, to Euston Station. Then he paid £81.50 cash for a return rail ticket to Manchester Piccadilly, valid for a month.

He caught the 10am Virgin train to Manchester Piccadilly and arrived at 12.05am.

Did you see or talk to him on his journey north?

At Piccadilly he initially appeared confused and is seen on cameras walking backwards and forwards between retail outlets at the station for 53 minutes.

Police believe he bought food at one of the outlets then spent four minutes at an inquiry desk, leaving the station at 1.03pm by the main approach.

Did you see him?

The CCTV footage, released by GMP and shown here, was to be the start of his journey to Saddleworth.

As yet detectives have drawn a blank trying to establish how he got there. They have discounted a rail journey to Greenfield — the borough’s only station — after examining CCTV footage at the station.

Did he travel by bus or taxi?

Around 2pm the man, in his 70s, calls at the Clarence, Greenfield, a popular pub for tourists and walkers. Landlord Mel Robinson, who has run the pub for 21 months, said: “He asked me the way to the mountains and I directed him to Dovestone.”

At around 4.30pm, the RSPB’s site manager at Dovestone, Dave O’Hara, said wardens driving down the Chew Reservoir private road, passed a man standing at the side of the vehicle track, about two thirds of the way up the track toward Chew Reservoir: “This appears to be the last sighting of the man, who was found the next day.

“The road up to Chew is a popular walk and as it is a well-surfaced track, many people walk up without walking boots or outdoor gear,” he added.

On December 15 at 10.45am a cyclist from Chadderton discovered the man’s body, lying on his back on the steep gradient at the side of the track.

Apart from the rail tickets, he had no identity or visible possessions in his pockets, other than £130 in £10 notes.

Since then, Oldham CID’s Detective Sergeant John Coleman and Detective Constable Nichola Chapman, with a police team at the Metropolitan Police, have been trying to piece together the man’s day.

“I find it impossible to believe he’s not known to someone,” said Sgt Coleman. “We are exploring every avenue to try and find someone somewhere who knows him so we can bring closure to these tragic circumstances.

“With it being holiday time, someone might not suspect anything is wrong if he has not been seen for a few days and gone missing.

“The gentleman might have been living in a community or alone. We are seeking someone who recognised his picture to contact us.”

Theories abound why the man, distinguished by a prominent broken nose, should have been drawn to visit the moor.

Was he rekindling a journey made as a child or when he was a teenager? Was it a sentimental trek to the site of someone whose ashes had been scattered on these fabled hilltops ?

Saddleworth-based Helen Morris, a consultant in dementia, said: “We have to consider it possible the gentleman was living with dementia.

“There are reports of people with dementia, who are physically very fit, walking for miles to find a location, which is well known to them from their youth, even when the environment there has changed considerably.

“The gentleman appears not to have dressed warmly for the route he had taken which may also indicate his mental capacity was affected.

“Dementia may be a factor but it could be a whole host of other psychological issues.”

Anyone with information should contact police on 0161-872 5050.

See the video here: