Bolney headless body mystery unsolved after 30 years

Thirty years after a headless body was discovered in a West Sussex village, police are still trying to identify him, and his killer.

The body of the man was also missing both hands when it was found in the village of Bolney on 11 October 1991.

Sussex Police were only able to identify him as a white male with a small star-shaped mole on his right thigh and a protruding belly.

DNA evidence later suggested the man had links to Bavaria in Germany.

When the body was found in undergrowth in Broxmead Lane it had been dressed after death in a shirt and trousers belonging to someone else, police said.

The body was buried in Western Road Cemetery, Haywards Heath, in 1994 but exhumed in 2009 in the hope that scientific advances would provide a breakthrough.

Speaking in 2019, Det Ch Insp Peter Kennett, who led the initial murder investigation, said: "Not knowing who the identity of the victim is, is a serious drawback to a murder investigation.

"All we had was a body, and a deposition site in the middle of nowhere. No nearby houses. No passing traffic. It was a fluke miracle that he was found so soon."

Police kept a full DNA profile of the victim, which later established he had a link to Bavaria in Germany.

The man's body was found about a mile away from a house being rented by a German fraudster, but Sussex Police have never been able to establish a connection.

Analysis also showed the victim was aged between 30 and 40, and about 5ft 6in (1.68m) to 5ft 8in (1.8m) tall.

In 2009 detectives travelled to Munich to broadcast an appeal for information on German TV. An appeal earlier the same year on the BBC's Crimewatch programme had generated a good response, police said.

Sussex Police say there have been no recent developments but the case has been reviewed every two years.

A force spokesman said: "This case has been exhaustively investigated over many years, there are no current lines of inquiry and no further investigation is taking place."

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