Detectives investigating the death of a pensioner on a hillside on the outskirts of Manchester have extended their search to Ireland in an attempt to identify him.
Police believe the man may have been making a pilgrimage to the scene of a plane crash that killed 24 people in 1949, possibly because he was related to one of the victims.
Detectives in Greater Manchester have spent six weeks investigating the death after the man travelled more than 200 miles to Saddleworth Moor, where his body was found on 12 December.
The man is thought to have been aged between 65 and 75, and police believe he could have a family connection to the crash, which involved a British European Airways Douglas DC-3.
Detectives are also exploring the theory that the pensioner was one of the survivors of the plane crash. Two young boys survived the crash. Stephen Evans, who was five, and Michael Prestwich, two, were saved from the wreckage.
Police said one line of inquiry is whether Stephen Evans is in fact the pensioner.
Local family records and a church inscription suggest that the other survivor Michael tragically died when he was only 12 - after a train accident on his way back from school. Det Sgt John Coleman said: “We know there was a plane crash there in 1949 with 32 passengers and the majority died. Amongst the people that survived were two children - Michael Prestwich, who was two, and five-year-old Stephen Evans.
“Could he have been one of the children on the plane? Or could he be a relative of one of the flight crew or passengers? We have no evidence to support this yet but it’s just another line of enquiry.”
Three babies were among those killed in the crash, which happened after the plane from Belfast struck a mist-covered hill in Saddleworth, about 15 miles from Manchester airport, its intended destination. Eight people survived.
The police have extended their search to Ireland to try to eliminate from their inquiries one passenger on the plane and have asked Interpol to check for possible leads on the continent.
DS Coleman of Oldham CID, who is leading the investigation, said: “We have opened the files on the crashed DC-3 and are examining all the names of all those survived and died in the tragedy.
“The unidentified man is of an age that ties with the crash itself. But this is just one of many lines of inquiry. He could be related to someone who lived or lost their life that August morning. We are keeping all our options open.
“The unidentified man could possibly have been making a pilgrimage to the plane crash site to remember a relative or friend.
“The tragedy was a major event at the time and is still remembered all these years later. It may have a significant bearing on the reason the dead man chose to visit Saddleworth. At this stage, with no clue on the dead man’s body to his identity, nothing can be ruled out.”
Last week, pictures of the man were circulated to GPs nationwide, and detectives from Manchester travelled to London and visited hostels, hotels and pubs to discover his identity.
Officers identified the smartly dressed man in CCTV footage from Ealing, west London, where he is believed to have started his journey on the morning of 11 December.
He arrived in Manchester shortly after midday after taking a train from London Euston, then went to Greenfield, near Saddleworth, and visited the Clarence pub at 2pm, where he asked the landlord how to get to the top of the 1,500ft Indian’s Head peak above Dovestone reservoir.
Despite warnings from the landlord, Mel Robinson, about treacherous weather conditions, the man left the pub and was spotted by witnesses walking up the hill at about 4.30pm.
The RSPB site manager at Dovestone, Dave O’Hara, said wardens driving down the Chew reservoir private road passed a man standing at the side of the vehicle track.
“He was about two thirds of the way up the track towards Chew reservoir,” O’Hara said. “This appears to be the last sighting of the man. The road up to Chew is a popular walk, and as it is well-surfaced track, many people walk up without walking boots or outdoor gear.”
The man’s body was found the next morning by a passing cyclist, lying face up on a boggy section of track. He was wearing slip-on shoes and had £130 in cash in his pockets, along with three train tickets, including a return ticket to London. He was carrying no documentation and searches of DNA databases have found no matches.
Anyone with information is asked to call Greater Manchester police on 0161 856 8972 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
