British police asked the public today to help them name 20 unidentified people found dead on Britain’s rail network over the past 35 years.
Officers launched a review of cases where people have died in non-suspicious circumstances but have never been traced.
They released 20 sketches of the victims, 18 men and two women, created by Leeds-based police facial imaging specialist Sharon McDonagh.
Most of the deaths were in the London area, but others were in Coventry, Sussex, Cornwall and Hertfordshire.
The cases date back to January 1975 when a woman was struck by a train at Victoria Tube station. The most recent was last December when a man died on tracks near Plumstead station, in south east London.
The review, by British Transport Police (BTP) and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) is the first of its kind.
Similar cold case reviews will soon take place involving other forces in a bid to clear up unidentified deaths.
Investigators are able to draw on expertise from the National Injuries Database, DNA databases, fingerprint database and age progression and forensic artists.
Detective Chief Superintendent Miles Flood, of BTP, said: “All these fatalities were fully investigated at the time and all clues followed up to try to establish an identity, but without success.
“We are now taking another look to see if there is any more we can do - in some cases to see if advances in forensic techniques can help - and to appeal to the public to see if anyone recognises them.
“Most of these cases are from the Greater London area, where people can often be quite isolated and transient, but one is from Coventry and another a quite recent death in Cornwall.
“Some of these people may have had an itinerant lifestyle, but it is likely that there are still relatives or friends who may recognise them and thought they had simply moved away.”
Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, of the NPIA, said: “The NPIA is the centre of expertise for the police service in cases of missing people.
“Through the database we maintain, and because of the breadth of forensic capabilities the NPIA provides the police service, the UK’s Missing Persons’ Bureau is best placed to support the service when it comes to cold case reviews of this kind.
“There are around 1,000 cases of unidentified bodies across the country, dating back more than 50 years.
“Behind every case will be a family or friend who perhaps wants to know what happened to their loved one or bring closure to a mystery.”
Ms McDonagh said: “What I try to do is to recreate what the person would have looked like alive, to breathe life back into them if you like.
“The source material is a mortuary photograph, but the drawing is not just a reproduction.
“Rather these are interpretations that highlight certain characteristics, which people who knew the person will hopefully instantly recognise.
“Although I only have a picture of a face to work from, I use all the information about that person.
“If you know they are of slim build, for instance, that will affect the way you draw their face
“If you know something about their background, you can get a feel for the person.”
PA