Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
SIMILAR CASE
Only last month the body of a man found in the South Pennines was identified after a painstaking year-long investigation.
In similarities with the Wincheap case, the dead man had no identity on him when he was discovered above the Dovestones Reservoir boating lake on Saddleworth Moor.
The landlord of a nearby pub recalled the man asking how he could reach the summit, despite being told he would never make it back before sunset.
The next morning, on December 12, 2015, a walker found his body on a boggy section of track.
No documents, scars, marks or tattoos were found on his body, although a couple of teeth were missing.
His DNA was checked and no match found against a series of databases.
Checks of missing person records also yielded no clues as to his identity, nor did the release of a detailed sketch of his face.
A postmortem proved inconclusive, but further tests revealed he had been killed by rat poison.
The pivotal breakthrough came when it was discovered he had at one time broken his left leg, which was fixed with a metal plate only used in Pakistan.
Removing women and those treated for broken right legs, detectives were able to narrow down their search, eventually using flight records to join the dots and identify the body as that of ex-tube driver David Lytton, 67, from London.
Police believe he killed himself using strychnine, which is often used as a pesticide. Efforts to identify the body of a man found in a farmer’s field in Wincheap are set to move into a fourth week as detectives continue to be stumped by the mystery.
Fresh details about the shock discovery on February 3 were this week released as police once again turned to the public for help.
Investigators are working on a number of theories, including the possibility the man had travelled down to Canterbury from London and become disorientated.
He had on him a small black suitcase, an unregistered Oyster card and a book on clinical theology.
No identification was found and his fingerprints were not on file.
His body was discovered by a dog walker off Hollow Lane, near the A2 crossover, shortly after 8am.
Tests have yet to establish how he died, but police remain convinced there are no suspicious circumstances.
A postmortem examination has been carried out, with tests expected to reveal if the man’s death was from natural causes or linked to hypothermia. DI Tracy Anstis said: “As part of our inquiries we have liaised with the National Crime Agency’s Missing Persons Bureau, but so far no one matching his description has been reported missing.”
She added that discovering the Oyster card had turned the attention of detectives to the capital.
She said: “It suggests he may have had links to London, and one line of inquiry is that he was from the Walthamstow area.
“One theory is that he was visiting Canterbury and may have become disorientated.”
The man is described as white and in his mid 50s to late 60s. He had short white hair and a short white beard. He was of a slim to skinny build and was between 5ft 5in and 5ft 6in.
DI Anstis says she would like to speak to anyone who has not recently heard from a relative or neighbour matching the man’s description.
She said: “We are keen to trace his last movements and establish if he was staying locally.
“Someone, somewhere, must know who this person is, and we urge them to contact us.”
If you can help, call police on 101, quoting reference number 03-0188.