FOR three decades, the identity of a man found dead in a Chelsea street remained a mystery – the only clue being a notebook bearing the name “Vincent”.
“The Chelsea Man”, discovered in the West London borough in 1994, became just one of thousands of John or Jane Does — a name given to unidentified bodies — in the UK.
Now, a new Channel 4 documentary, The Body Detectives, reveals how a team of volunteer cold case investigators from charity Locate International have uncovered his story.
Set up five years ago by retired cop Dave Grimstead, the charity aims to investigate every cold case in the UK, giving a name to each unidentified person and providing solace for their family.
The former Detective Inspector with Avon and Somerset Police worked on many high-profile cases during his 34-year career, including the sexual assault and murder of Melanie Road, 17, in 1984.
After 30 years, it was finally solved after a DNA breakthrough in 2015 led to the arrest of Christopher Hampton, who was jailed for life the following year.
Dave says: “You never know what piece of information that’s collected is going to make the difference.”
In The Chelsea Man’s case, the team used various methods, including facial reconstruction from a post-mortem image and scouring genealogy sites, local newspapers and cemeteries.
It turned out that Vincent was the correct first name, but the breakthrough came when they used enhanced imagery technology to decipher his surname — Akpiroroh — also written in his notebook.
Archive research uncovered only one person born in the UK with that name, and he was of Nigerian heritage.
The team discover that Vincent was born in the UK, moved back to Nigeria, and returned to London as a teenager.
He was mute, often writing things down to communicate. He had hoped to learn sign language but ended up homeless.
Once his identity is confirmed, his family in Nigeria are notified and they thank the charity.
Volunteer Emma Tilley, 31, who spent more than a year working on the case, tells The Sun: “It was a very emotional case to work on.
“It was the fact he came to London for a better life and didn’t get it. That’s what upset me.”
Dave adds: “With Vincent, I think the answers were in his case file all along.”
The UK Missing Persons Unit has a database of 13,000 names.
With the police lacking the capacity to investigate all these cases, the charity is designed to bridge the gap.
So far, it has solved 70 cases.
The charity does not receive government funding and relies on donations, with each investigation costing thousands of pounds.
The charity is filled with wonderful people who all have this thirst for social justice
Emma Tilley
Dave says: “It’s an entirely voluntary effort. There’s not one person in our organisation who is paid.”
There are more than 300 volunteers from various professional backgrounds, including ex-police officers, lawyers and nurses, who receive specialist training.
Emma, who has a PhD in criminology and policing, says: “The charity is filled with wonderful people who all have this thirst for social justice.
“Your scope can be really wide because you haven’t got the pressure like within policing to tie it up quickly.
“Thousands of hours go into each case.”
The three-part series also sees Dave investigate the disappearance of George Johnston in a bid to find answers for his daughter, Lucy.
George vanished off the Norfolk coast in 1984 after going into the water to help someone in distress.
After finding several clues, Dave travels to France in an attempt to find George’s final resting place.
The team also look into the case of an unidentified body found floating in the North Sea off the German Heligoland islands in 1994.
The body showed signs of having been beaten, and it had been weighed down by two old-fashioned cast-iron cobblers’ feet tied to it.
German police suspect the man, dubbed “The Gentleman”, could be British due to his clothes, including a striped, pure wool, M&S tie and British handmade shoes.
Dave enlists various experts, including forensic garment analyst Amber Butchart, to look for clues.
He says. “If we can find out his name, we can find out who he was and maybe that will unlock exactly what happened to him on that day, because it’s a murder investigation, and it’s still not being resolved.”
The charity has partnered with Staffordshire University and Nott-ingham Trent University to create the UK’s first multi-university cold case unit.
Forensic science students are assigned cases where police inquiries have ended to see if they can shed more light on them.
Dave says: “Later this year, we’re launching a collaborative project with Devon and Cornwall Police, where our volunteers will be vetted and able to access police systems to help review all their cases.”
We have become a nation obsessed with true crime, with the recent disappearance of British teenager Jay Slater capturing national attention.
A fundraising page for Jay, who went missing on June 17 in Tenerife, raised more than £70,000.
But his family criticised conspiracy theorists for hampering the investigation before Jay’s body was found in a ravine 29 days later.
Dave says: “There’s always a human nature to solve puzzles.
“If we can harness that constructively in a structured way, with a trained group of people, that would be great.
“At the moment, we have to prioritise because of finite resources.
“Part of how we want to shake things up is by creating that community, so we can review all those cases without having to decide which ones to take on.
“We think we can grow in the next five years to be in a position to review all 13,000 cases.”
And Emma wants to solve one last piece of the puzzle for Vincent — to find where he was buried.
She says: “I’m hopeful someone within a local authority will check their records and say Vincent is buried in their cemetery.
“We could raise funds for a headstone and be able to visit him.”
