Enquiries are continuing to identify a man whose badly decomposed body and partially clothed body was found on a West Cumbria beach, an inquest has heard.
Cockermouth Coroners’ Court was told that the mystery corpse was discovered on the shore in the area of the slagbanks in Workington, on Saturday, September 30 last year.
As an inquest was formally opened into the man’s death, a police detective’s statement revealed that officers had attended the scene at 6.43pm on that day. The man was pronounced dead by a paramedic a short time later.
“The body was decomposed,” noted Cumbria area coroner Kirsty Gomersal during a short hearing. “It had no arms. The torso was not fully intact. The face and upper chest area was skeletal only.”
The man had been wearing jeans with a 38-inch waist and 32-inch leg length over burgundy-coloured jogging bottoms with a black or brown belt still fastened and a sock around the right ankle.
There was underwear bearing the wording “original brand” which had been the subject of online searches.
Evidence provided by a mortuary attendant gave an approximate height of the man as 6ft 4in, although given the level of decomposition that figure may not be accurate.
As she outlined police attempts made to identify the body, Ms Gomersal said: “There were no positive results on the UK missing persons DNA database and only a partial dental imprint could be obtained. Some of the teeth had been lost after death, and those which remained were generic in features.
“Therefore (the detective) states that despite the police efforts they have not been able to identify the deceased male due to the extent of decomposition.
“A post mortem examination has been carried out and the cause of death is, as yet, ascertained. Further enquiries will be made into this male’s death.”
Pending those investigations, Ms Gomersal adjourned the unknown male’s inquest to a provisional conclusion date of September 26.
