He was wearing a wetsuit when police found his body floating in a Welsh reservoir in October. No clothes or belongings were discovered on the shoreline, and no car or bicycle was found nearby, despite it being a seven-mile hike to the nearest bus stop.
A postmortem examination failed to find any DNA or fingerprint matches and two police appeals for information about the man were unsuccessful.
Now, more than four months after the body was discovered in Claerwen Reservoir in Powys, Dyfed-Powys police have released an image of the wetsuit in the hope that someone can help them solve the mystery of his identity.
The anonymous man was found on 18 October after a member of the public spotted his body in the water just before 8.30am. It is estimated his remains may have been decomposing in the water for up to 12 weeks.
A postmortem examination confirmed that the body belonged to a man, aged between 30 and 60 years old, who was approximately 6ft tall.
DI Angela Ponting said he was found wearing a “Zone 3 Agile wetsuit”. The size of the wetsuit is XL, indicating that the man was possibly between 6ft (183cm) to 6ft 5in (196cm) tall and weighed 202 to 220lbs (92-100kg), with a 44 to 48 inch chest.
It is understood that the police spoke to Interpol to try to ascertain the man’s identity, as the remote reservoir can be popular with tourists.
Ponting said: “We have carried out numerous enquiries, including checking missing people records with other forces and conducting forensic enquiries both locally and wider in conjunction with law enforcement partners.
“Unfortunately, these have not led to the man being identified.
“We are keeping an open mind into the circumstances and continue to work towards finding out who he was, any family and what happened to him.”
She said police would like to hear from anyone who visited the Claerwen Reservoir or the surrounding area between the beginning of July 2024 and 18 October, and anyone who thinks the information issued by the police “could relate to a missing person in their own life”.
Police officers think it is unlikely the man walked to the reservoir in his wetsuit and find it “highly unusual” that no evidence of his belongings or his means of transport have been found, according to the BBC.
Local resident Rosemary Stow told BBC Wales most tourists do not make it past the visitor centre in the nearby Elan Valley. “People here are asking, has he been dumped there? But if he was dumped why put him in a wetsuit?”
Alan Austin, who chairs a local rambling group and regularly walks in the area, added that he has “never” seen anyone swimming in the “very cold” water of Claerwen Reservoir.
“It can be extremely dangerous,” he said.
