Grisly beach discovery

IT WAS a sunny spring morning in Broughty Ferry in March 2007 when a morning walk along the beach was spoiled by a grisly discovery.

Part of a a human leg had washed up on the beach after seemingly spending months in the sea, with the foot still clad in a sock and Reebok trainer.

Missing persons cases were reviewed by police and — thanks to information extracted from a toenail — forensic examinations were eventually able to reveal the leg’s owner had travelled extensively around northwest Europe in the months before the limb’s discovery.

They were able to put an age on the man — somewhere between 16 and 25 years old — and estimate his height was around 5ft 6 inches.

Despite this wealth of information the case remains unsolved. Sadly, when some people go missing they never return.

For those left behind, not knowing what happened to their loved one is a nightmare from which they can never wake up.

It is cases like this that the UK Missing Persons Bureau hopes to crack.

The organisation has created a central database of missing persons and unidentified cases, which allows cases where people have been reported missing to be cross-referenced with unidentified bodies in order to identify the remains.

By publicising details of missing people, they hope to put names to some of the bodies that have been found but never identified.

Despite the painstaking nature of the work, it is already showing success.

A spokesperson for the UK Missing Persons Bureau said: “In June we received confirmation of our first resolved case.

“We were contacted by a member of the public shortly after launch suggesting that they thought one of our cases of an unidentified female found in Essex could be their aunt.

“We already had fingerprints for the body and whilst the female had not been reported missing to us, through further work with Essex Police we were able to obtain fingerprints for the aunt and direct comparison confirmed that they were a match.

“This case clearly demonstrates the value of the website and we know that the family are grateful to have had the opportunity to find some answers in the search for their loved one.”