Police recieve over 40 calls following North Wales Crimewatch murder appeal

North Wales Police has received over 40 calls after an artist’s impression of a man, whose remains were found in a remote Conwy forest, was broadcast last night.

The image was revealed for the first time on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme as part of a new appeal to identify the unknown murder victim.

The man’s remains were discovered at Pentrellyncymer near Cerrigydrudion last November.

The body is thought to have been in the forest for several years.

Forensic tests showed he had suffered a serious head injury.
It was discovered by two brothers camping in the forest ahead of the Wales Rally GB.

Police launched a large scale forensic search and were able to recover virtually an entire male skeleton.

Det Supt Iestyn Davies said the man was probably in his sixties when he died and was between 5ft 8in and 5ft 10.5in (1.73-1.78m) tall.

His nose had been fractured at some point and he suffered from arthritis.

Two items of badly decomposed clothing were also discovered at the scene.

In June 2016, police appealed for help from dentists to identify the man but have so far drawn a blank.

The new, detailed image of what the victim may have looked like was produced with the help a forensic artist and an odontologist.

“There will be a loved one, friends, family that may recognise this person,” Det Supt Davies told the programme.

“A number of calls were received into the incident room and we are following up various lines of inquiry including some possible names to try and identify the individual.”

“Once we get the name, we can work on why did this person become a victim, who would be responsible for that and why would they want to have killed him.”

Pictured are forensic impressions of how the man may have looked.

Recap from Monday Evening:

Detectives from North Wales police launched an appeal for help on BBC Crimewatch this evening in an effort to identify the body of a man found murdered in a remote forest in North Wales.

In November last year, two brothers were camping in the forest in Conwy ahead of the Wales Rally GB when they made a gruesome discovery.

Whilst searching for firewood, they uncovered human remains.

North Wales Police launched a large-scale forensic search and were able to recover virtually an entire male skeleton.

Pathology indicated the man had died from blunt trauma to the head, and a murder investigation was launched.

Since then, detectives have worked tirelessly to find the identity of this man and despite gathering some vital clues, his identity is still unknown

The police have some clues from the scene – a label from a pair of badly decomposed Marks & Spencer underpants sized L, and pieces of a badly decomposed jumper, which was later revealed to be an XL sized Pringle jumper.

Police are unable to confirm if these were worn by the victim at the time.

Image: BBC CRIMEWATCH

Police believe the person was killed elsewhere and left at this site.

They estimate this would have been sometime between 1995 and 2005, based on the growth of the trees in the area and the decomposition of the body.

From the remains they have also obtained a full DNA profile, which did not match anyone on the database.

The police have also worked with forensic artists to reconstruction what the victim may have looked like to help people identify him.

The identity of the victim is the key to opening up the murder investigation and to ultimately finding out how this person died, and who killed him.

Crimewatch exclusively revealed these images in the hope that someone will recognise this man. Image: BBC CRIMEWATCH

Anyone who thinks they may recognise the man can call police in confidence on 101.

Additional reporting via BBC CRIMEWATCH