On May 8, 1975, a man was struck and killed by a train at Mile End Tube station. To this day his body remains unidentified – and he’s not alone.
Since 2010, British Transport Police officers have been looking into 55 unanswered deaths that have occurred on or near Britain’s rail and Tube network since the mid-70s.
Most of the fatalities have been from train collisions, but the list also includes suicide, hypothermia and a man who suffered a heart attack at Euston station.
Operation Santana, which works in partnership with the Missing Persons Bureau, has so far identified six people who have died in non-suspicious circumstances on the rail network.
For the relatives of Derek Burns’ the investigation ended 23 years of speculation.
The 23-year-old was struck and killed by a train in West Hamstead in 1989 after travelling from his home in West Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, to visit his then girlfriend.
Using modern DNA profiling techniques police were finally able to formally identify Derek Burns’ body.
“We realised now that investigative techniques have changed. When a lot of these fatalities took place we didn’t have DNA profiling, so we saw an opportunity with some joint funding from NPIA to maybe give closure to families and link up missing people with some of these fatalities,” said DCI Simon Taylor – the officer leading the Derek Burns’ case.
It’s very nice when you get the opportunity to say to a family we’ve found out where your son has been all these years. It might not be the good news that they want to hear but at least you’re giving them the comfort of knowing where he’s been and hopefully filling in a few of the gaps.
E-fits are one way BTP have tried to track down witnesses.
Leeds-based police facial imaging specialist Sharon McDonagh is the artist who was given the task of putting together profiles for Operation Santana.
Speaking about the task, 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.”
Despite results in a number of cases there are still 49 rail cold cases waiting to be reopened, with 49 families wondering whether their loved ones are about to walk through the front door.
“It’s a mixed bag really because at the back of your mind I suspect that you’re always hoping that someone is going to say ‘no he’s still alive living in America’ or wherever, but to go to them and say ‘well we’ve found them’ it’s some sort of a release for the family that have been looking for many years and wondering whatever happened to them,” said DCI Taylor.
“In police work you do an awful lot of work with no result. It’s very nice when you get the opportunity to say to a family we’ve found out where your son has been all these years. It might not be the good news that they want to hear but at least you’re giving them the comfort of knowing where he’s been and hopefully filling in a few of the gaps.
“It would be wrong to say we fit it around everything else, but I think it’s fair to say we have other priorities, but we never close these cases.”
