AFTER MORE than a year of painstaking enquiries across the UK and Pakistan, detectives investigating the mysterious case of ‘Neil Dovestones’ in Greenfield have made a positive identification.
The body of the pensioner was found on 12 December 2015 on the Chew track leading from Dovestones Reservoir boating lake to Indians Head.
At an inquest in Heywood on Thursday 26 January 2017, Senior Coroner for Oldham, Mr Simon Nelson confirmed the true identity of the man is David Lytton, 67, from London.
A full inquest date has been provisionally set for 14 March 2017 at Heywood Coroners Court.
The investigation into the true identity of the man captured significant media attention, both in the UK and internationally, with the press office receiving calls from countries such as Pakistan, USA and Japan.
Detective Sergeant John Coleman, based at Oldham, has been leading the investigation for the last 13 months.
The search has included speaking to Pakistani orthopaedic surgeons about a distinctive procedure to insert a mid-femur titanium plate onto the pensioner’s left thigh bone.
They also looked at ground breaking isotopic analysis that could help determine where ‘Neil’ lived most of his life as well as DNA comparisons to families of missing persons.
