Police believe remains belong to missing man

Feb 15 2012 By Jack Abell

David Walters, 37, who disappeared from a care home in Slough on July 29

HUMAN remains found in undergrowth in Beaconsfield are those of a man who has been missing since July last year, police believe.

Today police told the Advertiser they believe the body, which was discovered on Thursday last week, is that of David Walters, 37, who disappeared from a care home in Slough on July 29.

Mr Walters, who suffered from mental health problems, was last seen in Aylesbury in October and since he went missing, police have issued a number of appeals to help locate him.

He was on medication for his mental health problems and it is believed that he stopped taking them after he disappeared.

Police were called to the BP petrol station in Wycombe End after the remains were found in nearby undergrowth.

The body was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for a post mortem, but it did not establish a cause of death, and it is now thought it could take weeks to do this.

Officers are currently treating the death as 'unexplained', and more tests are to be carried out on the remains over the coming weeks.

Phillipa Jeffreys, 48, a housewife of nearby The Spinney, said: "Everyone here is quite shaken up to think that these things were found so close to our homes.

"It is really worrying. On Thursday I was driving past the petrol station and saw that part of the area had been cordoned off by the police.
"Later on that day I found out what they had been doing and it was a real shock.

"It is very eerie to think of human remains being so close to where you live and going undiscovered."

Laura Gorton, 50, a dental nurse, who lives in the same road, said: "No one knows how long they have been laying there or any other details yet. It is quite frightening really."

Police say that the investigation is still at a very early stage and that they are expecting it to be some weeks before it can progress.

A police spokesman said: "There is no update yet and we do not expect there to be one for several more weeks."