2 minute read
Cracking a cold case
On 11 July 1994, the body of a 6ft 5in man wearing Britishmade shoes was recovered from the water to the north-west of Heligoland, a small archipelago that forms part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Attempts to identify him in the years since have been unsuccessful and the case remains open. Now, 28 years later, forensic psychologists at Goldsmiths are helping German police attempt to identify this probable murder victim.
The new appeal for information has been launched by Wilhelmshaven investigators, the Oldenburg public prosecutor’s office, and the Lower Saxony Police Academy. Their intention is to identify the man’s name, inform his loved ones, and bring potential perpetrators to justice. Forensic psychology experts from Goldsmiths are working with charity Locate International, the University of Staffordshire and Plymouth Marjon University to appeal to the public in the hope that new lines of investigation can be opened.
The Cold Case Investigations Team (CCIT) at Goldsmiths was approached by Locate, on behalf of the police, to help draw upon scientific research and theory to make the appeal for information as effective as possible. The CCIT advised on the type of images to include, purposefully directing people’s attention towards unique descriptive details that might aid identification.
The team’s research shows that activating memories from a particular period can help individuals remember more information from that time, and so the CCIT is also calling on the public to think back to some key events from 1993/1994 – from the first images taken by the Hubble telescope to the release of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ – in the hope that this jogs people’s memories about the man they’re seeking to identify.
The CCIT was developed in 2021 and is part of the Forensic Psychology Unit, based within the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths. The team consists of postgraduate volunteers, overseen by directors Professor Fiona Gabbert and Dr Adrian Scott.
An artist's impression of the unidentified man, and the striped wool tie and leather shoes he was wearing when removed from the North Sea
