The death of a loving dad who was found more than five years after going missing remains a mystery.
Despite a lengthy inquest investigation which concluded today (June 21), coroner professor Alan Walsh recorded an open conclusion into the death of father-of-two James Hodgkiss. The 34-year-old was last seen by his partner in the early hours of August 3, 2016.
Nearly six years later, on January 24, 2022, his remains were found in a peat bog on Red Moss nature reserve close to Aspinall Way, Future Park, Horwich. The remains were discovered by conservation landscapers cutting back trees and hedges at around 3pm that day.
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James was formally identified by dental records, a forensic archaeologist, and forensic anthropologists. However, an inquest at Bolton Coroners' Court which heard evidence fom both the period leading up to his disappearance and the time following his discovery could not answer how or when he died.
The court heard that he struggled with a drug addiction in the years leading up to him going missing, and despite living in Peel Park Crescent in Little Hulton, would often frequent the Weston Street area of Bolton for drug use. Giving evidence, his mother, Christine Hodgkiss, said on August 1, 2016, that she had picked him up from Weston Street and tried to take him to hospital due to his state.
He refused to go into the hospital and after taking him back and forth on a few occasions she dropped him off at his father's address in Blackrod in the early hours of August 2. This was the last time Christine saw her son, and she would report him missing on August 5.
John Hodgkiss told the court that on the morning of August 2 he dropped James at Weston Street, as he often did, but had no contact with him again after this. He told the court that James would often turn up at his address, walking all the way from Bolton, always taking one of two routes.
The peat bog where James was found in 2022 was around three quarters of a mile away from John's address. However, John told the court that James would never take this route as it would make 'no sense'.
Jenny McDonagh, James's long term partner, told the court he had been taking drugs for a long time before going missing. She said that around 2am on August 3 he threw stones at the window of her house in Little Hulton and they spoke briefly.
After this brief conversation James walked away without saying where he was going. This was the last confirmed sighting on James.
Professor Walsh discussed other alleged sightings of James during the day of August 3 around Weston Street. However, these were described as contradictory and he considered the early hours sighting by Jennie as the last confirmed sighting of him.
After this sudden disappearance a missing persons investigation was launched with the family spending the intervening years searching for him. This included distributing more than 2,000 leaflets, extensive police searches around Bolton including around Weston Street and an underwater search at Bradford Reservoir, along with numerous media appeals.
Forensic archaeologist, Alison Baldry, who carried out a search in the area where James's remains were found, said only bones were found, some of which were underwater in a ditch. She added there was no evidence that James had been buried by anyone else.
Home Office pathologist Dr Phillip Lumb, suggested that James may have suffered hypothermia leading up to his death, but this couldn't be 'substantiated' with evidence and would be unlikely due to it being in the summer. Dr Lumb gave James's cause of death as 'unascertained due to skeletal remains' and that 'nothing can be supported by evidence'.
This included not knowing when, where, or how James died. He added that there were limited tests that could be done and they were not worth doing as they would not provide any clear answers.
Detective Inspector Anthony Lunt described the peat bogs as 'precarious' and that there a lots of mink and fox in the area that are 'active in scavenging'. "There is no evidence how he came by his death or what happened," DI Lunt said. Police never searched the peat bogs as part of the missing person search as it was "never an area of suspicion".
Professor Walsh, giving an open conclusion into James's death, said: "The investigation was as thorough as it could be bearing in mind the unknowns." He added: "I couldn't exclude natural causes, accident, or third party involvement.
"He seemed to live a double life. He cared for his children and was good with his children, but then he had another life which was born out of drug dependency."
He described what happened as his last sighting as a mystery and finding out was "just currently not possible to answer". "There is insufficient evidence to say what happened...We don't know how he came to be in that area or how he came to die."
