Police are investigating new leads that could help solve a murder mystery.
Detectives are looking into new details that could hold vital clues as to the true identity of the unknown murder victim known as "Fred The Head." An amateur sleuth believes that the victim could be a man who was reported missing from Liverpool.
A body of a man was discovered in a mound of earth off Newton Road, in Winshull, in 1971. The victim was said to have been naked but for a pair of socks, with his wrists and ankles bound behind his back.
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He was given the moniker of 'Fred The Head' because the skull of the skeletal remains was partially uncovered when found, Staffordshire Live reports. But now, Ken Davies, who runs the Fred The Head podcast, believes he may have discovered the victim's true identity.
Staffordshire Police is set to contact him to look into the evidence he's compiled. Mr Davies' latest episode focuses on a man called John Gick, who was aged 37 and single at the time he went missing in February 1969.
His disappearance was more than two years before the March 26, 1971 discovery of the body, which was thought to have been in the ground for at least 18 months. Mr Gick, a Scoutmaster, had travelled to Liverpool from the Isle of Man for a scouting event on February 1, 1969.
Before the show, he left his scouts in a care of a colleague saying he had an appointment. He visited friends in Prenton, Wirral, leaving them at 4pm, and saying he would return at 6.40pm for the show.
According to a previous ECHO article at the time headlined 'The man who stepped into nowhere', he was attacked by a gang of youths while leaving a gents toilets at around 5pm that day. But he was never seen again and his van was later found abandoned on Liverpool Landing Stage. Despite extensive police enquiries, Mr Gick was never found.
Now Mr Davies has revealed why he thinks John Gick is Fred the Head in his podcast episode he has also called 'The man who stepped into nowhere'. He told Staffordshire Live that while the victim is known to have had extensive dental work to his bottom teeth and upper dentures, no-one has been able to establish where this work was done.
He believes that might strengthen the case for the victim being from the Isle of Man, because dental records from the island may not have been looked at in the original inquiries.
A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police said: "We can confirm that this has been reported to us and we will be in touch with Mr Davies to discuss the information he has provided. The matter is subject to periodical reviews to establish if any new lines of enquiry can be pursued."
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