UK UK - Canterbury, WhtMale, 55-70, suitcase with theology book Feb'17

Al Ka

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From Kent police FB page: (1.6 K shares of the story and very good comments by public)
We are are taking the unusual step of releasing a computer generated image of a man who was found dead in a field on the outskirts of #Canterbury.

EFIT-Hollow-Way-Canterbury.jpg


https://www.facebook.com/kentpolice/posts/10158128002035161:0


Detectives are renewing their appeal for help in identifying a man who was found dead in a field on the outskirts of Canterbury after investigations drew a blank.

The man’s body was discovered by a member of the public on land close to Hollow Lane, near the A2 crossover, on the morning of Friday 3 February.

Detective Inspector Tracy Anstis said: ‘Unfortunately he had no identification with him and his fingerprints were not on file. ‘As part of our enquiries we have liaised with the National Crime Agency’s Missing Persons Bureau but so far no-one matching his description has been reported missing.’
...
The man is described as white and in his mid-50s to late-60s. He had short white hair and a short white beard. He was of a slim to skinny build and was between 5ft 5in and 5ft 6in tall.
...
Found with him was a small black suitcase, described as a cabin case, which contained toiletries and clothes, a book - Clinical Theology: A Theological and Psychological Basis to Clinical Pastoral Care by Frank Lake, abridged by Martin H. Yeomans - and an unregistered Oyster card.

Detective Inspector Anstis said: ‘The Oyster card suggests he may have had links to London
http://localrags.co.uk/index.php/20...nd-in-a-field-on-the-outskirts-of-canterbury/
 
Clinical Theology: A Theological and Psychological Basis to Clinical Pastoral Care by Frank Lake, abridged by Martin H. Yeomans - and an unregistered Oyster card.

The book is interesting since it is a very specialist text and narrows down considerably the sort of person who would possess it.

This is the author:

http://www.bridgepastoral.org.uk/history/frankLake.htm

The Oyster Card may not be registered but it would show a pattern of travel that might also give some hints.
 
Just an observation, he was found 30 minutes or less walking distance, from Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent & Canterbury Hospital and BMI The Chaucer Hospital...
 
From FB comments:

The Bridge Pastoral Foundation was having a 'primal gathering' on 3rd February for clinical theology, perhaps he was intending to travel there?
https://www.facebook.com/kentpolice/posts/10158128002035161:0

That sounds like really strong lead to me (because of book and date found) yet almost month past and still no ID.
Its really good that Kent police is following and replying to post there.
 
They are looking into

* Steven Woolley, missing since December
* Peter Edwards, priest from Perth missing since November (his sister commenting there that he is taller than UID, does not resemble him)
* David from Blackburn (no last name given) - intellectual man with mental health problems missing previously, then found, then missing again
* Shane Edwards - missing since November 2013 - wife located in Philippines searching for him -rule out (husband has an arm amputated)
* Patrick Stewart (no details mentioned about him)
 
There is also a woman on the FB group who claims to have regularly got the bus with a man who looked similar, who always got off at a stop 'in the middle of nowhere' and had some kind of 'holdall' with him. Not sure you would describe a cabin case as a holdall, but the mind can remember things oddly. It is so unusual these days for someone to be found with no identification. He had an oyster card but no wallet. Surely if he was on his way to a symposium he would have had a wallet with cards in, or something? If there are no suspicious circumstances then it does seem possible he was homeless or something. Or dumb question but do clergymen not have debit cards? Or monks? do they not have bank accounts? or driving licenses?
 
They are looking into

* Steven Woolley, missing since December
* Peter Edwards, priest from Perth missing since November (his sister commenting there that he is taller than UID, does not resemble him)
* David from Blackburn (no last name given) - intellectual man with mental health problems missing previously, then found, then missing again
* Shane Edwards - missing since November 2013 - wife located in Philippines searching for him -rule out (husband has an arm amputated)
* Patrick Stewart (no details mentioned about him)

Patrick Stewart??? who is looking into this?? The UID man's face in the reconstruction looks very much like the actor Patrick Stewart
ps.jpg
 
Kent Police just posted this

We are now able to release a new artist’s impression of a man who was found dead in a field on the outskirts of #Canterbury as we renew our appeal for help in identifying him.
The man’s body was discovered by a member of the public on land close to Hollow Lane, near the A2 crossover, on the morning of Friday 3 February 2017.
His cause of death has now been confirmed by a post-mortem as natural causes. Enquiries have been carried out to ensure he has not been reported missing elsewhere in the UK and forensic testing has also been completed, however officers have not yet been able to identify him.
A new, more detailed, artist’s reconstruction has been put together of the man’s face.
Detective Sergeant Gary Stamp said: ‘We would like to thank everyone who has been in touch with information about this case already.
‘A forensic artist has digitally re-constructed how the man might have looked when alive and we are hoping that this detailed image might be recognisable to those who knew him.’
The man is described as white and in his mid-50s to late-60s. He had short white hair and a short white beard. He was of a slim to thin build and was between 5ft 5in and 5ft 6in tall.
Found with him was a small black suitcase, described as a ‘cabin case’, which contained toiletries and clothes, a book – ‘Clinical Theology: A Theological and Psychological Basis to Clinical Pastoral Care’ by Frank Lake, abridged by Martin H. Yeomans - and an unregistered Oyster card.
Anyone who recognises the man in the image, or has information they think would be useful, please contact Kent Police on 101 quoting SI/ZY/1363/17.

36151f94a58c45ad212a1217592c8898.jpg


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http://missingpersons.police.uk/en/case/17-000918/MdYN44F

Circumstances
Male body was found in a field near Hollow Lane, Canterbury and had been deceased for about 48 hours. He died from natural causes. It is possible he had spent time in London in the weeks prior to his death. His upper teeth were dentures.

Clothing
Shirt/blouse - Shirt - Multiple shirts

Trousers - Cords - Multi - Green/brown cords

Tie - Multiple ties
 
http://missingpersons.police.uk/en/case/17-000918/MdYN44F

Circumstances
Male body was found in a field near Hollow Lane, Canterbury and had been deceased for about 48 hours. He died from natural causes. It is possible he had spent time in London in the weeks prior to his death. His upper teeth were dentures.

Clothing
Shirt/blouse - Shirt - Multiple shirts

Trousers - Cords - Multi - Green/brown cords

Tie - Multiple ties
The Police Can't Solve The Mystery Of A Man Found Dead In A Field In Kent https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmi...nd-dead-in-a?utm_term=.oo3X5mWEvJ#.oo3X5mWEvJ

Buzzfeed update with Coroner's response. How peculiar.

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Very sad. I read on the Mail Online (I know, I know!) that his death may have stemmed from starvation. Very sad. I wonder whether he was one of those people who had their disability benefits removed and was left without money.

They should check with the DWP, foodbanks, soup kitchens and organisations who help people with benefit appeals in East London where his possessions have been linked to.
 
Very sad. I read on the Mail Online (I know, I know!) that his death may have stemmed from starvation.

To quote the Mail:

An inquest in Margate was told that the man died from from heart disease, brought on by cirrhosis of the liver, which in turn could have been as a result of starvation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5078011/Mystery-surrounds-man-dead-Kent-field.html

I've not heard of cirrhosis being caused by starvation before.

According to wikipedia:

Cirrhosis is most commonly caused by alcohol, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][2][/SUP] ....... Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has a number of causes, including being overweight, diabetes, high blood fats, and high blood pressure.[SUP][1][/SUP] A number of less common causes of cirrhosis include autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, hemochromatosis, certain medications, and gallstones.[SUP][1][/SUP]

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

However there's also this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laennec's_cirrhosis

which states:

In the developed world, Laennec's cirrhosis most commonly affects middle-aged males, typically ages 40–60. This is the most common form of cirrhosis in the U.S. Chronic alcoholism can cause Laennec's cirrhosis.

and

Whether or not alcohol alone can produce fatty nutritional cirrhosis has been debated for decades. Current evidence is that it can. If so, the condition should be renamed "alcoholic cirrhosis". Those who do not subscribe to the "alcohol-as-a-poison" school state that the changes to be described are the result of malnutrition common to alcoholics.

So it's possible that if he was an alcoholic, malnutrition caused by liver damage was what triggered the heart attack which actually killed him. Of course, it's equally possible that the liver damage was caused by something other than booze, such as a previous liver infection.
 
Yes, its probably just typical poor reporting from the Mail, MelmothTheLost. They obviously saw the mention of starvation and put 2 and 2 together to make 5.

However, the man was very thin and low body weight/starvation does make existing illnesses worse and can hasten death in such cases.

That's what makes me wonder about his circumstances. Nobody should be starving in a country with an extensive social safety net. There have been cases of ill people dying after their benefits were cut and they couldn't afford food and heat.

I absolutely don't believe the assertion that this man will likely not ever be identified. It may be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but a good start is to identify the correct haystack to look in. I hope the police have already looked in the places I suggested.

It may also be a good idea to try and track down where the book may be from. Its quite a niche book, so sales will be low and very few shops will stock it. If he bought it online or ordered it via a shop, they may be able to get names of the purchasers and work through the list.
 
Very sad. I read on the Mail Online (I know, I know!) that his death may have stemmed from starvation. Very sad. I wonder whether he was one of those people who had their disability benefits removed and was left without money.

They should check with the DWP, foodbanks, soup kitchens and organisations who help people with benefit appeals in East London where his possessions have been linked to.

It's interesting the police seem to think he had links to eastern Europe, since that doesn't entirely gel with him having a book the reading of which would, I suspect, be hard going and would require a C1 or C2 level of reading English. The book and his "thin to skinny" build suggests to me an ascetic, ie a priest, theologian or someone in a similar field with an austere or self-denying lifestyle for religious reasons.

I think it very unlikely that he was benefit sanctioned, and given the book and his appearance I see him more in the provision of services to the poor and destitute than as a user of them. However no doubt the police would have been advised if someone involved in providing such services had gone missing.
 
However, the man was very thin and low body weight/starvation does make existing illnesses worse and can hasten death in such cases.

I've not seen any mention of his actual weight. If we had that we could work out his BMI and see just how slim or underweight he was. Now that so many people are overweight and obese, we're losing sight of what a normal bodyweight is.

That's what makes me wonder about his circumstances. Nobody should be starving in a country with an extensive social safety net. There have been cases of ill people dying after their benefits were cut and they couldn't afford food and heat.

The number of people reported dying because their benefits have been reduced or removed has apparently been misrepresented by some parties for political reasons. While the numbers include the relatively few people who committed suicide as a direct result, they also include claimants who died within a short period of their benefits being cut or removed even if they would have died then anyway, such as end stage cancer patients.

I absolutely don't believe the assertion that this man will likely not ever be identified. It may be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but a good start is to identify the correct haystack to look in. I hope the police have already looked in the places I suggested.

I agree. It's unfortunate he appears to have had no teeth at all. I've seen mention of him having an upper denture but nothing about his lower jaw. Presumably he was just gummy on the bottom. I wonder how common it is for people of his age range to have no teeth at all. The fashion in the UK for people to have all their teeth out as young adults was probably a generation older than him.

It may also be a good idea to try and track down where the book may be from. Its quite a niche book, so sales will be low and very few shops will stock it. If he bought it online or ordered it via a shop, they may be able to get names of the purchasers and work through the list.

I see from Amazon that most copies seem to be second hand and sold by independent online sellers. Tracking down all possible sellers would be a mammoth task, though an appeal through a tradepaper might be worth a try. It sounds like the sort of book you find in dusty secondhand bookshops in backstreets in seaside towns for a few quid. It would be interesting to know what its typical print run is or was.
 
The Police Can't Solve The Mystery Of A Man Found Dead In A Field In Kent https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmi...nd-dead-in-a?utm_term=.oo3X5mWEvJ#.oo3X5mWEvJ

Buzzfeed update with Coroner's response. How peculiar.

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I know this is a long shot and the areas don’t necessarily match up but Peter has been missing since Nov 1st 2016.
He is a pastor, the book found with the body was a Christian approach to psychology.
I wonder if maybe he was troubled or went on some sort of journey/mission IDK.
I just thought that without the big beard and if you look at the shape of the nose, they look quite alike.

b7b0f49755fdd3c58330f25572e1dc9c.jpg



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I know this is a long shot and the areas don’t necessarily match up but Peter has been missing since Nov 1st 2016.
He is a pastor, the book found with the body was a Christian approach to psychology.
I wonder if maybe he was troubled or went on some sort of journey/mission IDK.
I just thought that without the big beard and if you look at the shape of the nose, they look quite alike.

b7b0f49755fdd3c58330f25572e1dc9c.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pastor's sister has confirmed on Kent Police FB page some time ago that it was not him. I think this is the link to comments https://www.facebook.com/kentpolice/posts/10158128002035161:0
 

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