Who was David Lytton, when was the Saddleworth Moor death inquest, and when’s the Channel 4 documentary about the case?
A TRAGIC pensioner who was found dead in mysterious circumstances on Saddleworth Moor was nursing a secret heartache after his girlfriend suffered a miscarriage.
David Lytton, 67, travelled 200 miles from London to a lonely hillside where he his body was discovered - but it took cops a year to identify him - and the case is now the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary.
Here's what we know about the mystery man dubbed "Neil Dovestone" and his fateful journey to Saddleworth Moor...
Who was David Lytton?
David Lytton, 67, sparked a riddle when his body was discovered on Saddleworth moor in December 2015 alongside a bottle containing the poison strychnine – two days after jetting into the UK from Pakistan.
The pensioner worked as a croupier and a Tube driver and spent most of his life living in Streatham, South London, before selling up and moving to Pakistan in 2006.
His father Hyman Lautenberg has passed away but he is survived by his mother and younger brother Jeremy.
He described his Arsenal FC fan brother as a “genius” but added he was a “loner”, saying: “David was not a man of this century, he was a man unencumbered by possessions.
“He didn’t have a kettle at home and didn’t used to cook at home."
David's met companion of 35 years Maureen Toogood, 69, when she fainted in a London street in 1971 and he rushed to her rescue.
Maureen fell pregnant with a little girl 18 months later but she miscarried in her fifth month before David also lost his croupier job.
He used his redundancy to buy a home in Streatham, South London, for £25,000.
The couple drifted apart and in 1976 Maureen then met another man called John who she married, but she and David remained in touch.
They saw each other regularly until October 3 2006 when he visited for the last time.
Three days later he moved to Lahore in Pakistan, having made £200,000 profit from his house sale.
Stunned Maureen recalled: "He vanished into thin air. I was heartbroken. He came to see me in October, he gave me a kiss before he left but I expected to see him again days later."
What happened to David Lytton?
The discovery of the pensioner's body on December 12, 2015, sparked an international mystery.
The well dressed OAP was found by a cyclist lying face up on the track overlooking Dovestone Reservoir, close to the summit of Indian's Head.
His head was pointing uphill, his legs were together and his arms were by his side.
He was carrying only three train tickets, £130 in cash and an empty medicine bottle with a label in English and Urdu showing it used to contain thyroxine tablets.
Cops discovered he had travelled from West London to Manchester by train before travelling to Saddleworth.
He then went to a local pub for a drink and asking the landlord how to get to the mountain.
It's thought that once he reached the peak he took a lethal dose of rat poison and his body was discovered by a member of the public the following day.
A post-mortem later revealed he died from strychnine poisoning in what cops believe was suicide.
How did Lytton get to Saddleworth Moor?
Detectives found the mystery man - dubbed Neil Dovestone by mortuary workers - had travelled the day before from West London.
CCTV images tracked his journey by Tube from Ealing Broadway, where he bought a £4.80 single ticket and boarded a train to central London at around 9am on December 11, 2015.
At Euston station paid £81.50 cash for a return ticket to Manchester Piccadilly and caught the 10am service, arriving at 12.05pm.
CCTV cameras filmed him milling around station shops including Boots and M&S for 53 minutes.
Cops believe he bought a sandwich and spent around four minutes at an inquiry counter.
He briefly went to a taxi rank before finally leaving the station on foot at 1.03pm.
There the trail goes cold until around 2pm, when he strolled into The Clarence in Greenfield, 11 miles away.
The pub is a popular watering hole for tourists and walkers exploring the surrounding trails and peaks on Saddleworth Moor.
Landlord Mel Robinson recalled: “He asked me ‘The way to the mountains’. He didn’t ask for anything
specific or a place name.
“I accompanied him to the door and directed him to Dovestone, via the route at Fletchers Mill. I gave him the directions twice.”
The OAP then calmly set off up the hill alone, despite the bad weather and warnings he would not make it back before sunset.
Why did Lytton travel 200 miles to die at that spot?
Detectives' enquiries focused on why the man had chosen that exact location before apparently taking poison and lying down to die.
Saddleworth Moor is notorious as the site where Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley buried four of their victims - although there was not thought to be any link.
It was also the scene of a plane crash in 1949 when a British European Airways twin-engine Douglas Dakota ploughed into the hillside on approach to Manchester Airport, leaving 24 dead.
Cops wondered if the mystery man made a pilgrimage to the site in memory of a relative or friend killed in the disaster.
There was also speculation he may have been one of the eight survivors, but that theory was dashed when the last-living survivor Stephen Evans came forward to say he was alive and well.
Why did it take so long to identify Neil Dovestone as David Lytton?
The dead man left no clues to his identity when he walked up the moor to his death, and his fingerprints and DNA were not in police files.
Detectives spent months trawling through missing persons cases and received hundreds of calls from as far away as America and Japan as appeals to help identify him went round the world.
Det Sgt John Coleman, leading the probe, said last year: “There are up to a thousand folk missing in the UK and sadly no one knows where they have gone.
“Here, we have a man’s body and we are building his profile without having one single clue as to his name or where he’s from.”
At one point police believed it could be the body of Hugh Toner, who vanished from a hospital in Ireland more than 20 years ago - but a DNA test showed it was not him.
A four-inch metal plate fitted for a broken left femur offered the first clue of a link to Pakistan as the unusual implant was only used in that country.
That narrowed it down to around 1,750 male patients who had the op between 2001 and 2015.
Theories then included the possibilities that the man was a light-skinned Pakistani national, a British national who was in Pakistan when he suffered the injury needing the plate, or a “health tourist” who travelled to Pakistan for surgery because it was cheaper.
What happened at the inquest into David Lytton's death?
David Lytton's identity was revealed as the initial inquest into his death - suspended last year when cops were stumped - was briefly resumed in Rochdale.
Coroner Simon Nelson said that enquiries to identify the man were now "at an end".
He said: “David Lytton has been identified as the deceased male found at the Dovestones Country Park.
“Both Det Sgt Coleman and I were anxious that this information be distributed without delay.”
Mr Nelson added: “There are other areas of inquiry that need to be pursued and are being pursued in order that I can fulfil my statutory obligation and all being well conclude my enquiries in due course.”
A full inquest into David Lytton's mysterious death was held at Heywood Coroner's Court, Rochdale, on March 14.
An open verdict was recorded by Simon Nelson, senior coroner for Greater Manchester North, who said a series of “fundamental questions remain unanswered” over his death.
A forensic toxicologist who gave evidence at a hearing into his death said the former croupier died after taking Strychnine, which is banned in the UK but used as a complementary medicine in some parts of Asia.
Det Sgt John Coleman, who tracked down the man’s identity, said he didn’t know how David obtained the poison but was satisfied there was no foul play in his death.
The inquest heard how David had been in a relationship for more than 30 years with a woman, the inquest heard, but did not even tell her he was moving to Pakistan in 2006 and simply left.
When is the Channel 4 documentary due to air?
A Channel 4 documentary examining the case will be shown at 10pm tonight.
It's called Mystery of the Man on the Moor and offers exclusive access to the year-long investigation.
The programme will feature previously unseen footage and moving interviews with members of Mr Lytton's family.
