Dental records may yield body clue

A clay reconstruction was made of the man's head

Police believe that one of the South West's 1,000 dentists may hold the clue to the identity of the man whose body was found on Exmoor 15 months ago.

The man's badly decomposed remains were discovered near Winsford Hill on 13 March 2002.

A three-dimensional clay reconstruction was made of the man's head, although Avon and Somerset Police have made limited progress in finding out who he was and how he died.

Police know that the victim needed extensive dental work about 10 months before he died

They believe they can narrow down the search to a small area of the region, which may help reveal the man's identity.

Test results

It is not known how long his body had been on Winsford Hill but police believe he died in 1999 - and are confident from aerial photographs shot two summers ago that the body was not there then.

Police believe that the man was in his late 20s or early 30s, around 5 ft 9 in tall with black hair.

It is believed he was from the Middle East, India or Pakistan and a necklace that he was wearing bears a verse from the Koran, suggesting that he was a Muslim.

Detective Superintendent Barrie Douglas says they have already done many tests, but so far without any successful results.

He said: "We took fingerprints and those were searched nationally on police records but there was no trace.

The man had a necklace with a passage from the Koran

"The second line of inquiry was using DNA. We searched the national DNA database but that proved negative as well.

"We then went to the third line of inquiry, which was dental records."

Police know that the victim needed extensive dental work before he died and they are confident they can narrow down the search to a small area of the South West.

It is hoped that a dentist between Bristol, Poole, Bude and Plymouth can identify their work.

Dental expert Dr Catherine Adams says the dental work is very distinctive.

She said: "I believe that the dental work, although not conventional in the dental school sense, is distinctive and somebody out there will recognise it."