Investigators explored countless avenues over the past 16 months, but the lack of clues makes it one of the UK’s most baffling cases.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-reservoir-wetsuit_7185894.jpg\")
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Image:
\n The remote Claerwen reservoir<\/p>\n
“No belongings, nothing found around the banking, no vehicle left nearby,” DI Anthea Ponting told Sky News.<\/p>\n
“Currently, none of the available information to us suggests a criminal element to it, however it would be remiss to say that new information may not change that.”<\/p>\n
The police search around the remote Claerwen reservoir involved a low-flying helicopter, drones, a boat team and officers scouring the water’s edge. They found nothing.<\/p>\n
All they had was the body and the Zone 3 Agile wetsuit, which was sized XL.<\/p>\n
Dyfed-Powys Police made public appeals, searched medical databases, checked criminal records, analysed missing people cases, and even spread the word overseas via Interpol.<\/p>\n
“It’s really unusual”, DI Anthea Ponting said. “We just want to resolve it.”<\/p>\n
The striking image of the man was created by Face Lab, a world-leading unit based at Liverpool<\/a> John Moores University.<\/p>\n They used CT scans of the man’s skull to then carefully reconstruct his face.<\/p>\n Image: Professor Caroline Wilkinson explained: “We see a middle-aged man, who has got an unusual dental pattern that probably would be recognisable.<\/p>\n “His teeth don’t meet and close all the way across.<\/p>\n “So it’s what’s called an open bite, and that means that his lips would have been more open at rest.”<\/p>\n She is confident in the likeness.<\/p>\n “Forensic cases are always really sad,” she added.<\/p>\n “If they need our help, it generally means that it’s a difficult case to identify.<\/p>\n “That means the person has not necessarily been missed.<\/p>\n “There might be extreme circumstances as to why that is, for example, like a murder, or in this case, it looks more like an accident – but it may not be.”<\/p>\n Read more from Sky News: Image: Police believe the man had been in the water for 12 weeks, which means he may have gone into the reservoir<\/a> in mid-summer 2024.<\/p>\n One theory is that he was swimming and could have had belongings with him in a dry bag, but there is no evidence for this.<\/p>\n The reservoir is four-and-a-half miles long, so officers decided it wasn’t reasonable to drain it or search the bottom of it.<\/p>\n![\"Claerwen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-reservoir-wetsuit_7185890.jpg\")
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\n Claerwen reservoir<\/p>\n
Boy, 7, dies after being struck by car<\/a>
Update on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370<\/a><\/p>\n![\"DI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-reservoir-wetsuit_7185891.jpg\")
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\n DI Anthea Ponting<\/p>\n