Unknown on database of death

THE MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE HOPING FOR BREAKTHROUGHS ON 1,000 TRAGIC VICTIMS

- By PAUL BRITTON

THEY appear only as mundane numbers and codes on a website. Scant information including dates, times and brief descriptions.

But behind the blunt information are real lives - real people whose deaths tragically remain shrouded in mystery or unsolved.

In a handful of cases there are no names, just circumstances described over a few short sentences.

Police now hope the new year will bring new answers although breakthroughs in all of the cases haven't been forthcoming as yet.

The National Crime Agency's Missing Person Bureau - a distressing database of death is a grim but hopeful tool.

Visitors to the website can review unidentified cases and send in details regarding potential identities via an online reporting form, in the hope that, one day, long-grieving families can get closure or police investigations can be garnered with crucial new information.

Sadly, more than 1,000 cases are listed.

They include case number 03-000027. The body of a man found in a skip in Trafford Park in February, 2003.

His gender is listed as male, his 'age range' between 45 and 60 and his ethnicity as 'white European' He's believed to be around 5ft 6ins tall. "Body found in a skip. Male had previously been seen in the area and believed to be a vagrant," reads a blurb.

The mystery man is described as having a full beard and a surgical scar on his lower left abdomen. The appeal includes an artist's impression drawing of the man's face, but that's it. Nothing more is known about the man in a tragedy ongoing for almost 23 years.

A simple search using the keyword Manchester brings up further mystery.

Case number 10-000491. The body of a young woman found buried at what was the Angel Meadows car park site just outside Manchester city centre.

Of all the cases listed on the database, the discovery of her body has prompted the most publicity.