Skull solves 14 year mystery

A MYSTERY which began 14 years ago may have been solved after a walker from Hailsham stumbled across a human skull.

Karen Perez, 38, of Warwick Close, made the gruesome discovery when she and her partner ventured from the main footpath in Park Wood, Hellingly, on April 6.

'It really took me by surprise,' said Mrs Perez. 'My partner and I moved off the main path and within a few hundred metres I could see a strange looking object, pointing towards me, in the ground.

'I looked closer and realised it was two eye sockets and part of a jaw line.' Forensic experts conducted a thorough search of the area on Friday last week, and are now sure that the skull belonged to Walter Denson, a 71 year-old who went missing in August 1988.

Mr Denson, a chronic schizophrenic, attended day care at Hellingly Hospital from 1951. In 1952, he underwent a rare and irreversible operation called a leucotomy, also known as a prefrontal lobotomy. Two holes were drilled into the patient's skull and part of the brain removed to relieve severe emotional and mental disorders.

The skull discovered by Mrs Perez featured the characteristic holes of a leucotomy, which would only have been carried out after all other treatment had failed.

During Friday's five-hour search, specialist officers uncovered other bones and pieces of old clothing along with a set of false teeth.

Detective Inspector David Oakley said: 'We are now confident that the remains are those of Mr Denson, but it will be for the coroner to make the final decision at an inquest. He has been informed and we await his decision.'

After Mr Denson's disappearance from Hellingly Hospital in 1988, helicopters and police dog units were dispatched to search the surrounding area. Police divers also scoured local ponds and rivers, but to no avail.

'Karen Perez is to be congratulated for finding the vital piece of evidence that local people, police and the Army were unable to find in 1988 following his disappearance,' said DI Oakley. 'Though it is speculation until the coroner's verdict, I am confident that we will finally be able to put Mr Denson's case to rest.'

Mr Denson's one remaining relative, an elderly cousin, is keen to give him a proper burial at last.