The daughter of the late miner and grandfather Alfred Swinscoe - who went missing more than 50 years ago and was found buried in a field decades later - says she 'doesn’t want to go to her grave' never knowing what happened to her 'loving and hard-working dad'. The family have made a public appeal for information into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Swinscoe, who went drinking at the Pinxton Miners Arms in Derbyshire in early 1967 and mysteriously went missing.
Details of the case, which is being treated by the police as murder, have once again come to light since DNA tests carried out on family members matched against bones exhumed from farmland in Coxmoor Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield. Construction work was being carried out at the site on April 26 when a member of the public came across some skeletal remains and contacted Nottinghamshire Police.
Fighting back tears, Mr Swinscoe's daughter Julie Swinscoe, 82, said the news has completely broken her. And she urged anyone with information that could help solve the case to come forward.
"Someone, somewhere, will have some information and we would urge them to get in touch with the police. We might be able to now give my dad the funeral he deserves but we don’t have the answers we desperately want," she said.
“Someone killed my dad and I want to know why? I need to know why.”
Mr Swinscoe was aged 54 when he was last seen drinking at the Pinxton Miners Arms, which no longer exists and was converted into a house. He had handed his son Gary some money to buy a round and gone to use the outside toilet but never returned.
Extensive DNA work carried out on the human remains ruled out all three of the force’s ‘no body’ murders and the person remained unidentified. Russell Lowbridge was four years old when his grandfather went missing and contacted police following a media appeal for information.
He felt the items of clothing found with the remains, including two distinctive socks and a shoe, belonged to his grandad. Father-of-six Mr Swinscoe, who was born and bred in Pinxton, had worked for Langton Colliery since he was 14 years old. He had the nickname of ‘Sparrow’ and was known as the ‘Champion Pigeon Man of Pinxton’ due to his love of pigeon racing.
Four of his children are still alive and he has a number of grandchildren. Recalling when her father went missing, his aforementioned daughter Ms Swinscoe said: "I was 25 at the time, a factory worker and I remember coming home one day from work and people saying they couldn’t find dad. He had gone missing, and the police were searching.
“We all thought it was very mysterious, but we thought he would turn up. It does make you wonder how we did cope through all these years because it has always stayed with us as a family. Where did dad go?
“We never expected that the remains found in Sutton would be him. I practically went hysterical. I said: ‘he can’t have lay in that field for 56 years and no one could find him until now'. It’s just so horrible. I would like to think I could die knowing the truth. I am 82 now and I could go myself at any time.”
Her brother, Gary, who died in November 2012 following a short illness, never got the chance to find the answers he desperately needed.
In a press conference a fortnight ago, police confirmed they'd launched a murder investigation. Senior detectives also ruled out the possibility that the remains belonged to James Brodie and Bogdan Nawrocki - two high profile missing cases.
Police investigating the suspected murder also said the remains were not those of Robin Barrows Spencer, a 47-year-old local man who went missing in 2004.
Mr Lowbridge, 60, who now works for St John Ambulance, said: “I was the closest nephew to Gary as he passed on his love of pigeon racing to me in the 1970s and 80s
“I think it is in the blood. He doted on my grandad. He always said what a great pigeon racer he was. They had a shared passion for it. His disappearance haunted Uncle Gary his whole life. He went to his grave never knowing what happened.
“He wouldn’t let it go, especially as he was in the pub with him the night he went missing. He just remembers his dad giving him a ten bob note - telling him to get a round and then never ever seeing him again.
“He would go back to Pinxton at the time and even search down disused wells and even hired a private detective near the end.
“It completely broke him, never knowing what happened to his dad. I want justice for Gary because he tried so hard to get answers It tormented him up until the day he died.
“We are going to bury Alfred in Sutton next to Uncle Gary. It is time this old miner came home. It’s like what pigeon racers would say ‘it has been a long hold-over, it has been a smash up of a race, but the old bird has finally clocked in'. And for those who don’t know what that means – it means he has finally come home.”
His family is now appealing for any information, no matter how small, that could help police with their investigation. Officers want to hear from anyone who knows Mr Swinscoe, drank at the Pinxton Miners Arms at the same time, or knows anything about his disappearance and was reluctant to come forward all those years ago.
Daughter Ms Swinscoe added: “He was born and grew up in Pinxton and was a hard-working, loving father. They really respected him at the colliery because he was good at his job and liked to socialise in the pub after work.
“Everyone knew who he was in Pinxton because it was a proper pit village. He also had his own pigeon loft. It was a keen hobby in the 1960s. He knocked it together himself with my brother Gary. You could say it was like working class horse-racing.
“He was good at it and known as the top dog. Someone, somewhere, will have some information and we would urge them to get in touch with the police.
“We might be able to now give my dad the funeral he deserves but we don’t have the answers we desperately want. Someone killed my dad and I want to know why? I need to know why.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Nottinghamshire Police incident room by clicking the online link below https://mipp.police.uk/operation/33EM22E48-PO1. Alternatively the incident room can be contacted on 0800 096 0095.
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