A dog walker found mummified remains in weighted black bin bags in the River Stour in Suffolk in 2020 — an inquest has now ruled the unidentified man was unlawfully killed
(Image: Police Handout)
An unidentified man, whose partial remains were found in weighted bags in the River Stour in Suffolk, was unlawfully killed, an inquest has determined.
A dog walker discovered two mummified legs and feet alongside two mummified arms without hands, all contained within black bin bags, in the river at Sudbury on August 27, 2020. Two days later, police divers recovered skull fragments, facial bones and two loose teeth in a thin blue plastic bag 150 metres further downstream.
An inquest into the death of the individual, referred to as the Croft Man for the purpose of the inquest after the area of Sudbury where his remains were found, was held in Ipswich on Tuesday. Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley concluded that the Croft Man died as a result of a “violent assault”.
He stated that checks had been conducted against national and international databases for missing persons and criminal activity, but no matches had been found.
He noted that radiocarbon dating suggested the man was born prior to the early 1950s and died around 2008 to 2012, leading to the estimation that he was in his late 60s to 70s at the time of his death, reports the Daily Star.
(Image: Police Handout)
The coroner highlighted that the removal of the man’s hands and the injuries to his head and face “appear to have been an attempt to hamper his identification”.
He concluded it was “more likely than not the Croft Man was unlawfully killed”. “We must remember that the Croft Man was somebody’s son,” Mr Parsley remarked.
“He lived for 60 to 70 years. He may well have had family, he almost certainly had friends. It’s a tragedy we cannot identify him as there must be some loved ones somewhere wondering where their loved one is.”
Dog walker Julie Dunn-Beechin, in a statement read to the hearing, recalled spotting two black bin bags in the water along a stretch of the River Stour by water meadows on August 27, 2020.
She noted that her dogs’ interest in the area and the bags “didn’t seem right to me”. Park ranger Samuel Morgan, who was contacted by Julie, recounted: “She said she didn’t know if she had been watching too many Midsomer Murders and had a concern about what could be in the bags.”
He described the bags as containing rocks and bricks, along with “what looked like a Toilet Duck soap that had partly dissolved”.
Mr Morgan reported seeing “through a small hole in the bag what I thought looked like mummified skin and bone” and what appeared to be the ball joint of an arm, prompting him to alert the police.
Superintendent Mike Brown, of Suffolk Police, estimated that the bags were dumped between August 13 and 19. He referenced a volunteer litter picker, who regularly canoes in the area, who confirmed the site was clear on August 13.
(Image: Police Handout)
The bin bags were first spotted on August 19, though this went unreported to police at the time. Following a thorough search of the riverbed, a dive team uncovered further human remains in a thin blue bag on August 29.
Mr Brown confirmed that the “remains from the first deposition site and the second deposition site are the same person”, a fact verified by DNA testing.
He disclosed that the air fresheners discovered in the black bin bags were manufactured at a facility in north Wales that ceased operations in early 2012. He observed that the bricks, produced in the 1970s, were “very common”, with millions having been made.
“The biggest challenge we have is we do not know the identity of our victim so we’re unable to work around the associations they would have had and then look at those wider lines of inquiry,” he explained.
DNA analysis indicated that the individual was a white northern European male, probably born with blonde or light hair which may have naturally darkened over time, and blue or green eyes, he said.
“The most likely and preferred hypothesis is that there’s a criminal element,” he stated, adding that the injuries sustained to the skull supported this theory. The way in which the body was dismembered could suggest someone with “skill in butchery”, he indicated.
“Our victim has likely met a violent and unnatural death,” he declared. He continued: “Because of the length of storage the individual could have been found in a state by somebody who doesn’t want to come to the attention of police and has tried to dispose of them by throwing them away.”
(Image: Police Handout)
Home Office pathologist Dr Ginni Fitzpatrick-Swallow disclosed that the limbs found inside the black bags had become mummified, while the skull fragments retrieved from the blue bag by police divers showed no remaining skin.
With regard to the skull fragments, she noted there were “at least 14 linear cuts” which could have been inflicted by a “heavy weapon with a sharp edge” such as a meat cleaver, axe or machete.
She confirmed there had been “multiple blows to the head”. “The appearance is consistent with repeated strikes in rapid succession due to their uniformity,” she said.
She went on to explain that it remained unclear whether the skull injuries had been sustained during the victim’s lifetime, as no soft tissue had survived. “To completely destroy a skull like that seems from a dismemberment point of view unnecessary,” she said.
She further noted that “to remove the hands and destroy the facial features” can be associated with attempts to conceal the identity of the victim. The pathologist suggested that some of the remains “may have been frozen” and could have been encased in plastic for a period of time.
She recorded the medical cause of death as unascertained.
