Cornwall's most mysterious unsolved cases of the decade
Missing person enquiries are always disturbing, even more so when the police are unable to get to the bottom of them and there remain more questions than answers.
In some cases bodies are never discovered, leaving relatives to wonder if their loved ones are still alive. There have also been cases where police found a body, but were unable to rule out foul play.
The incidents stumped police — leaving questions that lingered for years afterward, as years passed without a police arrest or any trace of a body.
We’ve taken a look back at some of the most high-profile Cornish mysteries of the past decade that remain unsolved to this day.
Alan Jeal
February 2014
The mysterious death of Alan Jeal in 2014 made headlines across the country. The 64-year-old was found near-naked on
Perranporth beach with a sock and headphones stuffed in his mouth, having suffered significant yet unexplained injuries.
From the beginning, the case of Alan Jeal was compounded by several unusual aspects.
Alan lived a very reclusive and solitary life in Wadebridge, rarely interacting with others.
In the last weeks of his life he purchased a 10kg weighted training vest and 2kg ankle weights from Amazon, which were never located. It is unclear why Alan bought the training equipment, but he was not known to have exercised.
On Monday, February 24, 2014, Alan carried out an internet search on his computer on bus routes from Wadebridge to
Truro,
Newquay to Truro and Wadebridge to Camelford.
At 4.41pm Alan shut down his computer, which was out of character with the rest of his computer activity in 2014.
He was spotted on CCTV heading into the centre of Wadebridge, and caught the bus from Wadebridge to Truro, arriving at 6.14pm.
There caught another bus which later arrived in Perranporth, via Newquay. At 10.27pm Alan was seen for the final time on CCTV walking along Beach Road in Perranporth, close to the spot where his body was found.
At 2pm the next day an off-duty police officer and his wife were walking along Perranporth beach at high tide when they found Alan’s body about 30 metres in front of the Watering Hole bar.
He was naked, wearing only one trainer, and headphones were hanging down his torso.
Seven days later detectives were finally able to identify the body when members of Alan's family recognised an artist’s impression in a police appeal.
Detectives were baffled as to why a sock and headphones were stuffed in Alan’s mouth.
Speaking at Alan's inquest, forensic pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffrey, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Jeal, admitted that the discovery was concerning.
“It is clear the sock was purposefully stuffed in his mouth," she said. "It would be a rather unusual thing to do to oneself. I’m not aware of this being a recommended practice of taking your own life.
“It is possible the headphones were inadvertently dragged into the mouth at the same time the sock was inserted. So it would suggest the sock was inserted in a hurried manner.”
Matthew Pavitt, of HM Coastguard, added that in his experience it was not unusual for people wishing to end their own lives to use objects in their mouth to conceal distressing sounds.
Mr Pavitt said male adults often go to a place of historical significance to them to end their lives. Alan spent a lot of time in Perranporth as a young man and had fond memories of the place.
A navy Regatta jacket was found near Alan' body. Inside the jacket pocket was his wallet containing a photograph of himself as a two-year-old boy and £95 in cash.
A rucksack was also found on the beach nearby. It was largely empty apart from loose plasters, a pen and oddly, a bag full of dog faeces. Alan did not own a dog.
Dr Jeffery concluded that Alan died as a result of drowning in addition to significant injuries which are likely to have been suffered from a fall from height.
To this day detectives are unable to say whether he was killed, he took his own life or if his death was an accident. The mystery was even featured on the BBC's Crimewatch programme, but police got no closer to solving the puzzle.
After an investigation which lasted six months, police wound down their inquiries and concluded that the death was “unexplained”.
Officers remained open-minded as to what happened and could not rule out suicide, an accidental death or the involvement of others, including murder.