On the 14th November, 2015 two brothers Andrew and Mark Middle were camping in Clocaenog Forest discovered a skull on the forest floor and after a closer inspection realised it was human. A local officer attended the scene and concluded that the brothers had found the fully decomposed remains of a human male.
Based on tree growth, body decomposition and the fact that the area of the forest where the victim was found was planted in 1985, the police believe that the body was deposited between 1995 and 2005. The deposition location of the body was easily accessible as it was only a few metres from two forest roads.
The police uncovered an almost entire skeleton of a human male. The majority of the skeleton was discovered in dense trees and undergrowth a few metres away from the location of the skull.
Detectives believe he died after being struck on the head at another location and was then taken to the woods.
Description
It is likely that the man would have been born before 1950 and aged over 54 at the time of his death and most likely in his 60s. He would have been 'well-built' in life and would have had a height of between 5 ft 8in and 5 ft 10.5in.
The victim had an injury to his spine, fused vertebrae, a broken nose and possible injury to his left wrist. He had arthritis and an inflammatory condition in his spine and other joints. In life, the victim would have experienced pain and reduced movement.
The victim had lost a number of teeth during life which would have resulted in sunken cheeks.
The victim had a number of crowns to his front teeth, which appeared to have been done in the UK between 1980 and 2000.
Some items of clothing were found near to the body but it could not be confirmed that they were associated with the victim. These items were: a dark green Pringle jumper and some dark red decomposed Marks and Spencer underwear. The underwear was manufactured in 1999 and Pringle of Scotland confirmed that the jumper was produced between 2000 and 2004.