Body in van is missing diabetic

Mr Smart needed regular injections for his diabetes

A body found in a van at Sedgemoor service station is that of a missing diabetic, police have confirmed.

Jeremy Smart, 46, had been missing from his Headley Park home since 25 March.

A post-mortem examination proved inconclusive and toxicological tests will now take place to find the cause of his death.

Police are satisfied there are no suspicious circumstances connected with Tuesday's discovery of the body and have referred his death to the coroner.

The father-of-two was last seen at football practice at Withywood School in south Bristol.

No sightings

Days later his daughter Sophie, 17, made an emotional appeal for her father to return home.

Ms Smart said that it was possible her father felt he had become a burden to the family because of his diabetes, but stressed that nothing could be further from the truth.

Detectives spoke with Mr Smart's friends and neighbouring police forces were alerted to his disappearance.

Despite the high-profile appeal, police received no sightings of Mr Smart or his Mercedes van.

In the early hours of 17 April the van was spotted at Sedgemoor service station on the M5 in Somerset

Police attended and found a man in the front of the van. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Smart leaves a wife Karen, 45, a son Robert, aged 20, and daughter Sophie, 17.