An unidentified man, whose partial remains were discovered in weighted bags in the River Stour in Suffolk, was unlawfully killed, an inquest has ruled.
A dog walker found two mummified legs and feet along with two mummified arms without hands, all contained in black bin bags, in the river at Sudbury on August 27, 2020. Two days later, police divers discovered skull fragments, facial bones and two loose teeth in a thin blue plastic bag 150 metres further down the river.
Inquest findings
An inquest into the death of the individual, referred to as the Croft Man after the area of Sudbury where his remains were discovered, took place in Ipswich on Tuesday. Suffolk's senior coroner Nigel Parsley concluded that the Croft Man met his end 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.
The coroner pointed out 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".
Discovery of remains
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 seemed to be the ball joint of an arm, prompting him to call the police.
Police investigation
Superintendent Mike Brown, of Suffolk Police, estimated that the bags were dumped between August 13 and 19. He mentioned a volunteer litter picker, who regularly canoes in the area, confirming that the site was clear on August 13. The first sighting of the bin bags was on August 19, but this was not reported to the police at the time. A meticulous search of the riverbed was conducted, and a dive team discovered additional 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 revealed that the air fresheners found in the black bin bags were manufactured in north Wales at a facility that shut down in early 2012. He noted 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 testing suggested that the individual was a white northern European male, likely born with blonde or light hair which may have naturally darkened, 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 inflicted on the skull supported this theory. The manner in which the body was dismembered could indicate someone with "skill in butchery", he suggested.
Pathology report
Home Office pathologist Dr Ginni Fitzpatrick-Swallow revealed the limbs discovered in the black bags had become mummified, while the skull fragments recovered from the blue bag by police divers bore no remaining skin. Referring to the skull pieces, she stated 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 explained it remained unknown whether the skull injuries were sustained during life, as no soft tissue survived. "To completely destroy a skull like that seems from a dismemberment point of view unnecessary," she said.
She noted that "to remove the hands and destroy the facial features" can be linked to concealing the identity of the victim. The pathologist indicated 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.
