Who is Neil Dovestone? Mystery of the Man Who Killed Himself on the Moors

[danielsan]

Apologies for the irregular format of the text. That is how it C&P'd.

And more than three months later police still have absolutely no idea who he is.

When the body of the pensioner was found lying face-up by a track on December
12, it sparked one of the most mysterious missing person cases detectives in Britain have ever faced.

The man had no wallet, no mobile phone and nothing to identify him. Baffled
mortuary staff nicknamed him Neil Dovestone after the area of Saddleworth Moor where he was found.

Detective Sergeant John Coleman, who has led the three-month investigation for
Greater Manchester Police, said: “Our mission is to tell a loved one that
the gentleman has passed on.

“There are up to a thousand folk missing in the UK and sadly no one knows
where they have gone.

“Here, we have a man’s body and we are building his profile without having one
single clue as to his name or where he’s from.”

The riddle began 24 hours previously and 200 miles south when “Mr Dovestone”
bought a £4.80 single ticket and boarded a train at Ealing Broadway station
in West London around 9am on December 11.

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, blue corduroy trousers, blue jumper, brown
jacket and freshly polished, black slip-on shoes, he took around 31 minutes
to reach Euston station.

There he paid £81.50 cash for a return ticket to Manchester Piccadilly and
caught the 10am service, arriving at 12.05pm.

CCTV cameras caught him milling between shops at the station for 53 minutes,
during which time cops believe he bought something to eat and spent around
four minutes at an inquiry counter. What he was asking about has not been
established.

He finally left the station on foot at 1.03pm.

There the trail goes cold until around 2pm, when he strolled into The Clarence
pub in Greenfield, Saddleworth, 11 miles away.

The pub is a popular watering hole for tourists and walkers exploring the
surrounding trails and peaks.

Landlord Mel Robinson, 58, recalled: “The pub was quiet when the man walked
in. He asked me ‘The way to the mountains’. He didn’t ask for anything
specific or a place name.
“I accompanied him to the door and directed him to Dovestone, via the route at
Fletchers Mill. I gave him the directions twice.”

Mr Robinson, a father of three, added: “He did not speak with an accent. He
just simply asked the way. He didn’t even have a drink.”

The man set off despite the bad weather and his smart black shoes. It was
raining hard that afternoon, the sun set at 3.48pm and temperatures dropped
overnight to below freezing.

RSPB warden staff drove past a man around a mile up Chew Track at about
4.30pm. The peak of the trail overlooks the moor where child murderers Ian
Brady and Myra Hindley buried their victims in the Sixties.

The following day a cyclist discovered the man’s body. He was on his back on a
steep gradient by the side of a single-file track at 10.50am — almost 21
hours after he left the pub.

The emergency services and a mountain rescue team were dispatched after
reports of a man apparently having suffered a heart attack.

Rick Beswick, a 29-year-old stalwart of the Oldham mountain rescue team, was
one of the first on the scene.

He said: “When we were first called to the scene we were told the man had had
a cardiac arrest. Tragically we see lots of people who die in incidents in
the countryside.”

After the call came in, quietly spoken Det Sgt Coleman, a policeman for 19
years, thought the case would be straightforward to solve.

Yet the more he investigated, the more the mystery on Saddleworth Moor
began to deepen. Heart-breakingly, more than 40 anxious families have
already contacted him, in vain, asking if Mr Dovestone is their missing
relative.

The only possessions found on the man were three rail tickets, £130 in £10
notes — and an empty plastic screw top bottle labelled in English and Arabic
as containing 100 tablets of thyroid-balancing tablets.

No credit cards. No keys. No bus pass or rail card. No watch.

His jacket, shirt, jersey trousers and shoes were from high street chain
stores and could have been bought almost anywhere in Britain.
And in the weeks and months that have followed, despite a lot of publicity, no
one has come forward with a single shred of information.

Officers have made some progress. Earlier this week The Sun revealed they had identified the poison he took as strychnine. Used as rat poison, it is only
sold under strict licence.

But they are still looking for a final breakthrough — which could come in the
shape of a broken leg.

The man has a 4in metal plate screwed into his left femur, which was fitted in
Pakistan between 2001 and 2015. But unlike the NHS, Pakistan does not number
the plates and consequently Det Sgt Coleman’s team have asked staff at the
High Commission in Pakistan and Interpol for assistance.

The Sun understands the number of possible patients is 1,750 after right leg
ops and women are discounted.

Among the theories is that the man was a Pakistani national injured in the
country, he had dual nationality or he was a British national who was in
Pakistan when he suffered the injury needing the plate.

A fourth idea is he was a “health tourist” who travelled to Pakistan for the
operation because it was cheaper.

Police have also not yet ruled out a link to an horrific plane crash in 1949
when a holiday DC-3 ploughed into hills in the other side of Dovestone
valley, leaving 24 dead.

But in interviews, nothing has so far revealed a single clue from relatives of
those who died or survived.

There had been conjecture that the mystery man might have been one of the
eight survivors, and was returning to visit the crash site.

But that theory was dashed after the last-living survivor of the ill-fated
British European Airways flight — academic Professor Stephen Evans — came
forward alive and well.

The fact the man travelled north without ID could mean he did not want to be
found. Was he hiding a guilty secret or a personal tragedy?

Was he returning to Britain to die and if so, why Saddleworth Moor?

Source (Not a source I would usually quote, but the article is accurate and concise) -

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/ne...-on-the-moors/

[vagabond]

Great post! I wonder why he would take strychnine, that is a very painful way to go?

[AliceInChains]

I'm fascinated by this story.

It's one of those things that I don't think we'll ever get an answer on.

I do wonder why he chose strychnine, too... the only logical explanation for me is that he misunderstood what he was taking in some way.

[SalemSaberhagen]

Maybe he was the last surviving relative of one of the murdered children buried on the Moors and wanted to die there. Maybe some obscure Uncle or distant cousin or something, that the police never would have thought of.

[William May]

Originally Posted by SalemSaberhagen

Maybe he was the last surviving relative of one of the murdered children buried on the Moors and wanted to die there. Maybe some obscure Uncle or distant cousin or something, that the police never would have thought of.

Good thought!!.........you may very well be correct!!! I wonder if they had considered that?

[danielsan]

Originally Posted by danielsan1971

Apologies for the irregular format of the text. That is how it C&P'd.

And more than three months later police still have absolutely no idea who he is.

When the body of the pensioner was found lying face-up by a track on December
12, it sparked one of the most mysterious missing person cases detectives in Britain have ever faced.

The man had no wallet, no mobile phone and nothing to identify him. Baffled
mortuary staff nicknamed him Neil Dovestone after the area of Saddleworth Moor where he was found.

Detective Sergeant John Coleman, who has led the three-month investigation for
Greater Manchester Police, said: “Our mission is to tell a loved one that
the gentleman has passed on.

“There are up to a thousand folk missing in the UK and sadly no one knows
where they have gone.

“Here, we have a man’s body and we are building his profile without having one
single clue as to his name or where he’s from.”

The riddle began 24 hours previously and 200 miles south when “Mr Dovestone”
bought a £4.80 single ticket and boarded a train at Ealing Broadway station
in West London around 9am on December 11.

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, blue corduroy trousers, blue jumper, brown
jacket and freshly polished, black slip-on shoes, he took around 31 minutes
to reach Euston station.

There he paid £81.50 cash for a return ticket to Manchester Piccadilly and
caught the 10am service, arriving at 12.05pm.

CCTV cameras caught him milling between shops at the station for 53 minutes,
during which time cops believe he bought something to eat and spent around
four minutes at an inquiry counter. What he was asking about has not been
established.

He finally left the station on foot at 1.03pm.

There the trail goes cold until around 2pm, when he strolled into The Clarence
pub in Greenfield, Saddleworth, 11 miles away.

The pub is a popular watering hole for tourists and walkers exploring the
surrounding trails and peaks.

Landlord Mel Robinson, 58, recalled: “The pub was quiet when the man walked
in. He asked me ‘The way to the mountains’. He didn’t ask for anything
specific or a place name.
“I accompanied him to the door and directed him to Dovestone, via the route at
Fletchers Mill. I gave him the directions twice.”

Mr Robinson, a father of three, added: “He did not speak with an accent. He
just simply asked the way. He didn’t even have a drink.”

The man set off despite the bad weather and his smart black shoes. It was
raining hard that afternoon, the sun set at 3.48pm and temperatures dropped
overnight to below freezing.

RSPB warden staff drove past a man around a mile up Chew Track at about
4.30pm. The peak of the trail overlooks the moor where child murderers Ian
Brady and Myra Hindley buried their victims in the Sixties.

The following day a cyclist discovered the man’s body. He was on his back on a
steep gradient by the side of a single-file track at 10.50am — almost 21
hours after he left the pub.

The emergency services and a mountain rescue team were dispatched after
reports of a man apparently having suffered a heart attack.

Rick Beswick, a 29-year-old stalwart of the Oldham mountain rescue team, was
one of the first on the scene.

He said: “When we were first called to the scene we were told the man had had
a cardiac arrest. Tragically we see lots of people who die in incidents in
the countryside.”

After the call came in, quietly spoken Det Sgt Coleman, a policeman for 19
years, thought the case would be straightforward to solve.

Yet the more he investigated, the more the mystery on Saddleworth Moor
began to deepen. Heart-breakingly, more than 40 anxious families have
already contacted him, in vain, asking if Mr Dovestone is their missing
relative.

The only possessions found on the man were three rail tickets, £130 in £10
notes — and an empty plastic screw top bottle labelled in English and Arabic
as containing 100 tablets of thyroid-balancing tablets.

No credit cards. No keys. No bus pass or rail card. No watch.

His jacket, shirt, jersey trousers and shoes were from high street chain
stores and could have been bought almost anywhere in Britain.
And in the weeks and months that have followed, despite a lot of publicity, no
one has come forward with a single shred of information.

Officers have made some progress. Earlier this week The Sun revealed they had identified the poison he took as strychnine. Used as rat poison, it is only
sold under strict licence.

But they are still looking for a final breakthrough — which could come in the
shape of a broken leg.

The man has a 4in metal plate screwed into his left femur, which was fitted in
Pakistan between 2001 and 2015. But unlike the NHS, Pakistan does not number
the plates and consequently Det Sgt Coleman’s team have asked staff at the
High Commission in Pakistan and Interpol for assistance.

The Sun understands the number of possible patients is 1,750 after right leg
ops and women are discounted.

Among the theories is that the man was a Pakistani national injured in the
country, he had dual nationality or he was a British national who was in
Pakistan when he suffered the injury needing the plate.

A fourth idea is he was a “health tourist” who travelled to Pakistan for the
operation because it was cheaper.

Police have also not yet ruled out a link to an horrific plane crash in 1949
when a holiday DC-3 ploughed into hills in the other side of Dovestone
valley, leaving 24 dead.

But in interviews, nothing has so far revealed a single clue from relatives of
those who died or survived.

There had been conjecture that the mystery man might have been one of the
eight survivors, and was returning to visit the crash site.

But that theory was dashed after the last-living survivor of the ill-fated
British European Airways flight — academic Professor Stephen Evans — came
forward alive and well.

The fact the man travelled north without ID could mean he did not want to be
found. Was he hiding a guilty secret or a personal tragedy?

Was he returning to Britain to die and if so, why Saddleworth Moor?

Source (Not a source I would usually quote, but the article is accurate and concise) -

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/ne...-on-the-moors/

**UPDATE** **UPDATE**

The case has been solved, so I thought I'd update this post. It's a shame really when a mystery is solved, but at least the family involved and police etc, can move on.

David Lytton, known by the placeholder name Neil Dovestone, was an unidentified man found dead on Saddleworth Moor, in the South Pennines of Northern England on 12 December 2015. The placeholder name was reportedly devised by mortuary attendants at Royal Oldham Hospital, with reference to the location the body was found near Dovestone Reservoir, on an asphalt track in the Chew Valley.
The man died from a lethal dose of strychnine, and is believed by police to have committed suicide. He was estimated to be between 65 and 75 years old and was almost 6 feet (1.8*m) tall, with a thin build; he was balding with grey hair and brown eyes.
Evidence that the man had been in Pakistan not long before his death is from a 10-centimetre (3.9*in) titanium surgical plate, legally available only in Pakistan, attached to his left femur near the hip and the container used to carry the strychnine, originally used for a common medication (thyroxine), had a printed label with text in English and Urdu. The man was not known to the authorities in Pakistan and his fingerprints did not match any on record in Pakistan, the UK or other countries. No evidence linking him to missing persons cases was found.

Wimberry Stones also known as "Indian's Head", where the body was found
At 9.04 a.m. on 11 December the unidentified man had travelled by tube train from Ealing Broadway Station to Euston Station in London and then travelled to Manchester Piccadilly. He walked to the moor on the afternoon of 11 December, from Greenfield, where he made enquiries at The Clarence pub about walking to Wimberry Rocks. He was seen alive shortly after sunset (3.59 p.m.), by two RSPB staff, near the site at which his body was found the following day.
Wimberry Stones is a rock feature overlooking the reservoir, known locally as "Indian's Head". It was the site of a fatal airplane crash in 1949. Investigating detectives surmised the man may have been Stephen Evans, a survivor of the crash but it was discounted after he contacted the local press.
In January 2017 the body was identified as 67-year-old David Lytton, who had flown in to Heathrow Airport from Lahore, Pakistan, on 10 December 2015. He was identified from photographs from a passenger list and was picked up on CCTV in London. Greater Manchester Police reported that his identity had been confirmed as a result of a DNA match with a relative and said that Lytton "was a bit of a loner" and that "he liked his own company". His family was informed and a full inquest was scheduled for 14 March 2017.

Source - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lytton

[danielsan]

[gosportjamie]

OK, first things first, as I write this the time is 2330 GMT or 11:30pm on the 25/03/17, the 25th March 2017 just for absolute clarity as regards time and date.

I have just finished watching a TV program about this case called The Mystery Of The Man On The Moor that was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 at 2200 or 10:00pm today. As I write this, the program isn't YET on their website, but I am including this link http://www.channel4.com/ to the website as I have no doubt the program will be on the website and may well prove very interesting to those of you interested in this case...

Suffice it to say, it certainly isn't a clear-cut suicide, and is still an open case...

[flangemanager]

Damn, I was meaning to watch that. Totally forgot.

[danielsan]

Originally Posted by gosportjamie

OK, first things first, as I write this the time is 2330 GMT or 11:30pm on the 25/03/17, the 25th March 2017 just for absolute clarity as regards time and date.

I have just finished watching a TV program about this case called The Mystery Of The Man On The Moor that was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 at 2200 or 10:00pm today. As I write this, the program isn't YET on their website, but I am including this link http://www.channel4.com/ to the website as I have no doubt the program will be on the website and may well prove very interesting to those of you interested in this case...

Suffice it to say, it certainly isn't a clear-cut suicide, and is still an open case...

Firstly, do you have a time machine as it's only the 17th March 2017 today??

Secondly, I've got it recorded so I'm glad you didn't give the game away.