Docs called to help solve man on the moors riddle

Police are still trying to identify this mystery man, found dead on the moors

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DOCTORS across Britain are to be contacted this week by police trying to solve the mystery surrounding a man found dead on Saddleworth Moor.

Pictures of the man — culled from CCTV footage - will be shown to doctors in a massive initiative to establish his identity. A team of detectives, headed by Det Sgt John Coleman from Oldham CID, has spent hundreds of hours trying to solve the riddle of why the man should travel more than 200 miles from London to Saddleworth.

Results from a post mortem examination are still under medical investigation, but give no clues to his identity.

The mystery, revealed by the Chronicle, unfolded when a cyclist discovered the 65 to 75-year-old man laying dead at the side of a track leading from Dovestone Reservoir on December 12.

He carried no form of identification other than the pair of return London rail tickets and a single tube ticket to Euston station from Ealing Broadway. It is known he caught the 10.05 am Virgin train from Euston to Manchester Piccadilly the day before. There was £130 in £10 notes in one of the outer pockets of his trousers.

Since then, Det Sgt Coleman and his team have spent hours sifting and rechecking the journey, alongside a mountain of leads.

On his return from London after days working with the Metropolitan police, he told the Chronicle: “The Met’s co-operation and assistance has been brilliant. But the case is still throwing up more questions than answers. We are pursuing every lead thoroughly - even a lead to a person in Ireland who may be able to help. But the man’s actual identity and the reason for him being on the moor have alluded us.”

He added: “Someone, somewhere must know him...”