Fifty years on, a new way to see mystery murder victim

THE killing of an unidentified man who became known as Fred the Head has gone unsolved since his body was first discovered almost 50 years ago in Burton.

And while there have been facial reconstructions of the man, both when he was discovered in 1971 and more recently in 2016 in a bid to find out who he was - he has never before been seen in colour.

Burton resident Kim Macbeth, a member of the Who was Fred the Head? Facebook group, which was set up in an attempt to finally solve the case, has colourised the picture based on a detailed reconstruction from the skull of the victim - and gives a detailed glimpse of what Fred would have looked like.

Work has also been done to show what Fred might have looked like with longer hair as was the fashion in the 70s. He has also been pictured wearing glasses, while smiling and even as a younger man in the hope that someone may recognise their long lost relative or friend and the mystery of who he was can finally be solved.

An image has even been created of Fred as a woman - as has been recently theorised by the group. Fred is Staffordshire Police’s oldest missing person case and unsolved murder. While exhaustive investigations have been carried out since he was found buried on an island, off Newton Road, Winshill, in Burton, he remains a mystery.

Fred the Head was given a face by Professor Caroline Wilkinson, an expert in facial reconstruction at Liverpool University. In the past, the professor has reconstructed the features of Richard III.

To see the new images of Fred, get Monday’s Burton Mail.