Body found in rural England barn triggers Europe-wide investigation

Six years ago to the day, police officers in rural England found something disturbing.

While searching a derelict and overgrown barn in Hampshire during a separate investigation, they stumbled upon a body.

What remained was "essentially a skeleton", serious crime officer Douglas Utting told Euronews, estimating the person had been dead for several years.

The body belonged to a Caucasian man in his 50s, between 177cm to 180cm tall, with brown hair.

Alongside tobacco and cigarette papers, his remains were surrounded by clothing, including a beanie and glasses, a crime thriller novel and objects that suggested he was “living rough or on some sort of journey,” detailed Utting. 

Other than that there were no clues.

Officers did not find a passport, driving licence or any other identifying item at the abandoned dairy farm in Micheldever, southern England, where his body was discovered. 

There were no other signs, such as a tattoo or jewellery, that could “shorten the list as to who this person could be,” said Utting.

Even his cause of death was a mystery.

Again there was “no obvious trauma, no weapons, no clear signs of suicide, as is often the case in these sorts of cases,” explained the serious crime officer, though investigators now believe the man likely died of natural causes.

Hampshire Police then turned to science, taking DNA samples from his toothbrush and teeth.

But still they drew a blank. They could not match his DNA to anyone on the UK's criminal database or missing persons unit.

At the end of their trail, they resorted to a media appeal, asking anthropologist Dr Chris Rynn to make a facial reconstruction from his skull, which was shared with national newspapers in 2019.

And that’s when the story took an unexpected turn.

Witness