Names suggested for headless body

The body was found in woodland near the A23 in Bolney in October 1991

Several names have been suggested to police trying to identify a man whose body was found without its head and hands in Sussex woodland 18 years ago.

The development comes after detectives revealed the results of new tests, unavailable at the time of the killing, on the BBC's Crimewatch programme.

The body, which was exhumed earlier this year as part of a murder inquiry, was found off Broxmead Lane, in Bolney.

Det Supt Andy Griffiths said police had had a good response to the TV appeal.

"Several names have been suggested for the victim and we are following these up," he said.

"However the victim is still unidentified and we still want people missing a friend or relative from 1991 who answers the description to contact us."

Star-shaped mark

It was revealed on Thursday that fresh anthropological examination of the skeletal remains showed the unknown victim was in his early to mid-30s and about 5ft 6ins to 5ft 8ins tall.

Det Supt Griffiths said: "He was also circumcised and he was strongly built, but had a protruding belly."

He added that the man also had a star-shaped mark on his right thigh and was probably a smoker.

Forensic experts tested a femur, rib bone and toenails from the corpse, which were not available 18 years ago.

The results showed the man could have spent some years in central or eastern Europe.

Police issued a picture of a shirt with a motif, identical to one the man wore

They also showed that during the last period of his life he had been living somewhere in the middle or eastern part of the UK or in Germany.

One theory detectives are exploring is that he could have been a soldier stationed abroad for part of his life or a foreign national living in the UK.

Police also disclosed the shirt and trousers the victim was wearing were manufactured in 1986 and sold through the department store Fosters.

They appealed to professional buyers who worked there during 1986 to 1991 to come forward.

Officers also said they had obtained a full DNA profile of the victim but so far had not found any matches.

In March this year, the coffin containing the man's skeleton was lifted from a grave in Western Road Cemetery, Haywards Heath, where it had been buried in 1994.

A DNA sample was taken during the original inquiry in the 1990s but it failed to provide a match.

No cause of death was given at the time because the head and hands were missing.