Detectives investigating the murder of a man with learning difficulties are trying to trace bus passengers who may have seen the gang that attacked him.
Brent Martin, 23, died in hospital after being found injured in Town End Farm estate in Sunderland on 23 August.
Police say the assault started next to the car wash on Bunny Hill, leading to Town End Farm, at 2110 BST.
A number 13 bus service was at a nearby bus stop at the time and officers are eager to speak to its passengers.
Det Supt Barbra Franklin, of Northumbria Police, who is leading the investigation, said: "We know there were three girls on the back seats and also a group of three young men and an elderly woman on the bus.
"These passengers may well have witnessed the assault but not connected it to events later that evening.
Badly beaten
"We need to speak to these people as well as anyone else who was in the Bunny Hill area at this time."
Mr Martin was found badly beaten on Baxter Road.
William Hughes, 21, of Washington Road, Sunderland, and two youths, aged 17 and 16, who cannot be named, have been remanded in custody accused of his murder.
A woman and a 17-year-old arrested over the attack have been bailed.
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