The mysterious death of Alan Jeal on Cornwall’s Perranporth Beach
In 2014, a near-naked man was found on Perranporth beach in Cornwall in South-West England. He had a sock and headphones stuffed in his mouth, having suffered significant yet unexplained injuries. The body was identified as a man called Alan Jeal. Six years on, investigating detectives are unable to say whether he was murdered, committed suicide, or died as a result of an accident, with the coroner saying the death was “unexplained”.
The case has proven to be one of the most mysterious deaths, not only in Cornwall but in the United Kingdom.
The discovery of the body and identification
A body was found by an off-duty police officer and his wife, who were walking their dog at high tide at 2 pm on Tuesday, February 25, 2014, on Perranporth beach in Cornwall, in the U.K. The spot was 30 meters in front of the Watering Hole bar.
The dog walker saw a shape at the water’s edge and joked that it looked like a body.“I didn’t believe it was a body, I thought it was probably a couple of plastic containers,” he said. His wife walked closer and shouted to her husband that it was indeed a body.
Strangely, the dead male body was wearing nothing but socks and one walking shoe.
He added: “It was an adult male who had his face down in the sand. He was naked apart from a trainer. The incoming tide was washing up around the body. I could see a small amount of blood in the seawater next to the head. I noticed a cord (headphones) hanging down the man’s torso.”
The officer called 999 and arranged for the body to be covered and moved due to concerns it would wash into the sea with the tide.
The beach was closed off and the unknown male was declared dead at the scene by paramedics at 2.37 pm before his body was removed and taken to Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske.
Officers searched along the coast in an attempt to find his clothes, from Holywell to St Agnes.
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