The man was wearing a striped Marks & Spencer tie, expensively made but probably second-hand shoes – and 6kg of cast-iron weights tied around his body to drag him to the bottom of the North Sea.
Nearly three decades after discovering the body of what appeared to be a murder victim in the waters of Heligoland, German police have released new information and a first photo to identify the man named the “gentleman” for his smart clothes.
Researchers from the Universities of Staffordshire and Plymouth Marjon, in collaboration with the German Police Academy in Lower Saxony and the Locate International charity, are cooperating on the cold case with the intention of revealing the man’s name and bringing his killers to justice.
After exhuming the man’s body last December, they were able to isolate the full DNA profile of the 45- to 50-year-old man and are currently checking it with international DNA databases, police in Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany said on Thursday.
Ongoing isotope analysis may eventually confirm whether the man lived in the British Isles before his body was dumped in the North Sea, investigators suspect.
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The body was pulled from the sea by a border guard boat on July 11, 1994, 20 km from Heligoland, but police believe the body may have traveled some distance in the water.
“He could be taken from a ship or even there [from] “Britain, that’s certainly possible,” said Carsten Bettels of the Lower Saxony Police Academy.
An autopsy at the time showed signs of blunt force exposure on the head and upper body of a man nearly 2 meters (6 feet 5 inches) that he suffered while still alive.
Each of the cast-iron shoes weighed 3 kg, police said. Photo: Wilhelmshaven Police Inspectorate
An additional sign of a criminal act are the two cast-iron shoe racks, each weighing 3 kg, which were attached to the man’s body to weigh him down, as police first revealed.
Manufactured in the 1920s or 1930s, the two women’s shoes have embossed initials AJK, a trademark of Bristol-based AJ Jackson.
Police also announced the brand of the man’s tie for the first time, saying it was manufactured by Marks & Spencer for the English and French market, which at the time of the man’s disappearance stretched all the way to Canada.
The suspicions that the distinctive green, yellow and blue stripes mark the man as belonging to a specific organization have not been confirmed, police said.
German police are seeking additional information about the man’s possible identity from the public after receiving more than 50 pieces of information since turning to the press in February.
The striped woolen tie and leather shoes of Church & Co Ltd, which the gentleman wore when he was taken out of the North Sea.
Another reason for them to become public again is to correct the victim’s misleading nickname “gentleman”, which was based on his elegant clothes and expensive shoes.
“Against the background of the latest information, this impression should be relativized,” police said. The M&S tie is a mass market product and the shoes have been pre-repaired and can be purchased second-hand, they said.
“It cannot necessarily be assumed that the dead man was rich,” a statement from German police said.
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