Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be exploring an unidentified person case. The Sudbury Unidentified Man, as he's come to be known, was a mystery from the beginning, but some theories have come to the surface. This episode is about an unidentified person with some reference to injury, sustained and non graphic dismemberment of a body, so listed discretion is
advised. The River Stour is around forty seven miles long and is located in East Anglia. It passes through the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex. Sudbury is a market town which sits on the River Stour and therefore is a large feature of the town, so much so that Sudbury used to be an important riverport. On the twenty seventh of August twenty twenty, a passer by who was close to the river spotted something floating. The member of the public
had noticed two bin bags and to them they looked a little suspicious. This person was suspicious enough about the bags that they decided to report them to a ranger who at four point thirty five pm that day, contacted police officers attended the scene, which was reported as being between Meadow Gates and Croft Bridge. The bags were retrieved from the river and the contents were checked inside. Officers
discovered human bones and immediately the scene was cordoned off. The discovery of clearly human bones was a rare occurrence, especially in that area when police needed to try and figure out what exactly they had. Reports from the day that the bags were found indicate that police were clearly treating this as a murder investigation.
From the outset, divers from the Metropolitan Police's Marine Policing Unit was called out to assist the investigation and scoured the river for any other evidence that they may be able to recover. This would prove to be fruitful as this police search recovered another bimbag to add to the ones already found. Who was this person and how had their bones ended up in the river in bimbags. The remains themselves were sent off for a post mortem to try and establish some more about
the victim and to try and identify a possible cause of death. The objects inside the bags themselves were immediate interest to the police, given that they may point to how this crime had been committed or who buy In this case, there was a lot of evidence left behind. The bags had been weighed down using bricks, indicating that whoever had been involved in this crime had taken a
lot of time to try and conceal the body from being found. These bricks were identified as Eastwood's flatting bricks and as well as these bricks, there was also further carrier bags which had been filled with decorative stones. The bags which these bricks and stones were found in were also of interest. One of the bags was white with the word thinking of Bobs on the side. This bag
was known to have been produced between twenty thirteen and two thy fifteen. There was also a bag from the shop Boots from around twenty twelve, and then generic blue carrier bags which were known to come from market stalls or corner shops. As well as this, officers discovered a number of air fresheners in the bag which were used in commercial toilets. These reportedly gave off a very strong
chemical smell. Police investigated the source of these air fresheners and found out that they were sold only business to business and were made by Jays at a factory of mold in North Wales. These products became obsolete in twenty eleven and so this gave police a possible indication for when these products were being put inside the
binbags. The analysis of the remains, however, would of course be key to trying to understand who this person was, and his DNA was taken and ran through the UK Missing Person's Bureau in the hope that they would be a match. In September twenty twenty, however, it was revealed that this search
had not revealed anything. There was no match. Detective Chief Superintendent aim And Bridger of Suffolk Police said the MPB holds records on every missing person in the country and where DNA profiles have been obtained, these are held on their database. We have run the initial profile we have of this individual through that database, but have not had a match at this time. The use of DNA forms a central part of the effort to identify the victim in this case.
This includes comparisons being made across a number of both national and international databases and is likely to take some considerable time to complete. He also stated we're continuing to appeal for anyone with information about this shocking discovery. To come forward, someone must know who the deceased was or have information about who deposited the remains, So please come forward and talk to us. Any information you give us
will be dealt with in confidence. Police were able to say that the victim was of an athletic or a muscular build. This was a key detail for anyone that might think they knew this person and could help someone to come forward. The same BBC article from September twenty twenty stated that both Corey mckeeg and Luke Durbin had been ruled out as being this unidentified man. In the next couple of months of the investigation, the police tried to trace as many people
as possible in an effort to identify the man. They also appealed for anyone who may have been in the area at the time, such as a man that had been spotted swimming in the river around a week before the remains had been found. The main stumbling block was trying to establish when the man had died, given that this would really help the police to discover which timeframe they
were looking for. While they were waiting for this vital information, they were asking for anyone with concerns about a missing relative or friend, or anyone who knew someone acting suspicious to come forward as anything at that point could help the investigation. It would take a year, however, for police to release the
information about the victim that their investigation had discovered. The forensic tests established that the man had died between the years two thousand and eight to twenty twelve, meaning that when they'd found the victim he could have been dead for between eight to twelve years. The tests also established that the victim was in his late fifties to early sixties when he was killed. He was of a medium build, was of North European heritage and was around five feet nine inches tall.
Assistant Chief Constable Amonbridger stated, we said this would be a long and methodical process and it's proven to be just so, especially due to the type of specialist forensic testing that has been and continues to be taking place. Many of the results that have come back then need to be subject to further tests and
so we still have a distance to go. At that time, Suffolk Police had taken nearly one one hundred and fifty statements in reports and looked through two hundred and thirty missing person reports However, they were yet to establish who this victim was. More information would later be presented about the postmrtem and the forensic testing that had been done on the bones. It was confirmed that the body
had been dismembered and this had been done cleanly. At the joints. They had recovered part of the skull and jar, as well as the right and left arm bones and the partial wrist bones. The complete lower right and left legs and feet were also found. The arms, legs, and feet were partially and one of the wristbones had a healed fracture. The arms and feet were noted as bending inwards and upwards, which was possibly a result of the
way in which they'd been stored. Detective Superintendent Brown stated it would appear the remains had been stored in dry, airless conditions for a number of years before someone decided they needed to be disposed of. It could be that the people responsible for his death took the decision to move the remains, or that someone discovered them and, not wanting to engage with the police, decided to simply dispose of them. There was some evidence found on the skull. The part
that was recovered had twenty seven deep lacerations on it. This, however, was not fought with the victim's cause of death. One interesting absence from the bin bags was the victim's hands. The police believed that this could have been a deliberate action on the perpetrator his part and was a way of further trying to conceal this man's identity. Police have discussed their hypothesis, saying, our leading hypothesis is that this individual is very likely to have been the victim of
organized crime. The way the body was dismembered and the fact the hands are missing bare the hallmarks are being done very deliberately and by people who knew what they were doing. In twenty twenty one, police arrested a twenty six year old man in connection with the case. Is reported that this man was arrested in Sudbury and that he was also being charged with possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply. Another man was also arrested on drugs charges, but
was not arrested in connection to the Sudbury murder. The twenty six year old was never charged with any crime in relation to the unidentified man, and the evidence for his arrest was never divulged. Police, however, did search a proper in Sudbury. Following the arrest. Police further appealed for anyone to come forward if they knew someone in their late fifties to early sixties who they were concerned about or hadn't seen in a while, as they may be able to
help the investigation. They also wanted to know if anyone in the area had noticed any binbags in unusual places such as ditches and hedgerows. In twenty twenty two, police released an image that they wanted to distribute to the wider public. The image was that of a man and a woman walking a dog and pulling a suitcase. This couple were spotted on CCTV from the nineteenth of August
twenty twenty eight, days before the bones were recovered from the river. The police stressed that they were being treated as witnesses and not suspects, and hope
that they may have seen something of note from the time. Police have confirmed in an article from October twenty twenty three that searches for this man's identity are ongoing and that missing person reports from local, regional and national databases are being checked regularly, as well as DNA comparison from the UK and international databases.
So far, these searches have drawn a blank. The case was also featured on Crime Watch Live and shown across the country in the hope that this would jog someone's memory of a relative acquaintance, our colleague that they may have lost touch with between the years two thousand and eight in twenty twelve. As of March twenty twenty four, however, there has been no such breakthrough. Unidentified
person cases are heartbreaking and I always feel particularly bothered by them. I always hope that they can be identified in the end, as I always think about this person as someone's son. He may have been a dad, a brother, or an uncle. He was known and loved by someone, and the fact that this victim was in his late fifties to early sixties means he lived
a life somewhere and must have been known to people over those years. The fact that organized crime may have been involved in this means unfortunately, their knowledge of how to conceal crimes and evade the justice system means that this victim has gone unnoticed all of these years. Who was this man, how and wir had he become victim? To what police believe may have been an organized murder or committed by hardened criminals. Police have stated until we know who this individual
is, we can't bring justice to them or their family. Who will also allow us to understand their lifestyle and allow us to look at other lines of inquiry to establish what may have happened to them, who may have been responsible for it, and to ultimately bring those people to justice. If you knew a man aged in his late fifties or early sixties at that time who suddenly
disappeared without a trace, then please contact us. This is the most crucial part getting answers for this victim's family and possibly also getting justice for what happened to their loved one. The police do have DNA for this person and so they just need a match. If you think that you know anything about this victim or this crime, please contact police on one oh one. Thank you
for listening to this episode. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can also get access to new episodes early in ad free. You can use the link in the show notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support us by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and also just share the episodes. You can subscribe
on YouTube and follow us on social media as our ways. I'm Caprice and this has been unseen the bo