Bid to solve mystery of body on the beach
A new podcast which seeks to find answers to an unsolved case about an unidentified body on Seaham Beach launches today.
Testimony: The Body on Seaham Beach is a new twopart podcast which launches 16 years to the day since the events that took place following the discovery of human remains on the Featherbed Rocks.
On May 13, 2006, a man walkingonthebeachmadethe shocking discovery.
On the podcast, Fiona Thompson, who covered the story as a reporter for the Sunderland Echo at the time, takes listeners through the actions of police and others in the weeks, months and years that followed, in the exhaustive attempt to identify these remains.
The podcast is a production of Laudable, the project involving National World plc and Reach plc, and will feature on the websites of the Sunderland Echo and NationalWorld. com, as well as all major podcast platforms.
Fiona takes listeners throughwhathappened:“This casehasstayedwithmeforthe last 16 years. I had never seen anythinglikeitbefore,orsince for that matter.
“This body washed ashore at Featherbed Rocks and noone knew who it was. Durham Constabulary set to work straightawayandIstayedclose to the investigation as they introducedamazingcuttingedge scienceandtechnologytotryto identifythisunknownperson.
“Igottoknowsomeofthose involved in the case quite well, such as Cliff Down the Detective Sergeant and Neville Dixon, the Coroner’s Officer, and for all of us, this case has always stayed in the back of our minds. By making the podcast we wanted to explore everything that happened and ask the question if something was missed or if more could have been done.
“Someoneoutthereknows who this is. The podcast contains everything we know about this man and I hope that something will click with a listener and we can finally say who this person is and return them to their family.”
Retired Detective Sergeant Cliff Down was the lead police officer on the case and shares
his memories about the only case he ever worked on not to reach a conclusion.
“It was the first time I’d ever gone to a body that had been recovered on the beach. There were a lot of inquiries to come which I had never done beforeanditwasabiglearning curve for me. Like most investigations we started with the basics, we needed to rule out foul play and see if this body matched any missing persons reports from ours and neighbouringforcesareas.Butafter that we needed to start thinking more laterally, we had to use all the forensic evidence we had to try and identify this
person.
“We ventured into areas of cutting edge scientific investigations that hadn’t been used beforebytheforce,likeIsotope analysis.Weevenundertookto create a full facial reconstruction too in the hope someone would recognise this person. Nostonewasleftunturnedbut, this case still frustrates me to this day and I hope by contributing to the podcast we can reach someone who has information who can help answer some of the outstanding questions we have.”
Episode 1 will be available on all podcast platforms from today.