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A young man, perhaps 25 to 35, found dead on the the length of the River Avon. To date, he's never been identified.

John Doe, a person without a name, a life story which has no ending, a body lying on a postmortem table, and investigators searching for answers. Welcome to your latest true crime obsession, Jigsaw, told in bite-sized episodes which get straight to the heart of the unusual circumstances and the possible clues that could help identify an unknown body. There are around 1,000 people found in the UK who cannot be identified. They were mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. Somebody somewhere will likely be wondering what happened to them. In this series, we present the pieces of the mysterious jigsaw puzzle in the hope that someone listening can piece them together. So listen carefully as we present the clues. Dust off your detective hat as we delve into the coroner's case files and help us dissect the details that try and establish who they are.

In this episode, Can We Give a name to the Clifton Bridgeman?

Brought to you from the charity Locate International, this is Jigsaw.

The River Avon snakes its way along 83 miles of countryside, from Gloucestershire through Wiltshire and on to Somerset. It's a haven for wildlife, a place of peace and tranquility. But as is sadly often the case, the river bank can also bear witness to tragedy. And on the 19th of May, 1996, a man's body is found on those banks. The man was white, had medium build and appeared to be between the age of 25 and 35 years old. He was 6 foot tall with blue eyes and light brown collar-length hair. He wore a black sweatshirt and a jacket, blue Lee jeans and brown boots. His injuries and the location made it evident to everyone that he had fallen or perhaps jumped from the Clifton Suspension Bridge, a looming 75 meter high bridge linking Clifton in Bristol to Lee Woods in North Somerset. Since it first opened in 1864, sadly, the bridge has been used by people looking to end their lives. Between 1974 and 1993, A 127 people fell to their deaths from the bridge. And in 1998, barriers were installed on the bridge to prevent people jumping. The place the body has found is always significant.

Even if it doesn't represent the place the deceased lived, it's reasonable to assume there's a reason they're there, for work, for pleasure, or in the most tragic of cases, to end their life. With that in mind, when you hear the following clues, remember where this story ended up, on the banks of the Avon, below the Clifton suspension Bridge, and perhaps it might become the glue which holds the other pieces of evidence together. Those pieces of evidence begin with clue number one, the possessions. The items we carry on our person inevitably reveal detail about our personalities. Whether they're an intentional statement or just the things we've acquired on life's journey. They can tell a story or at least provide an insight into our habits, our friendships, and our movements. And that was the case with the Clifton Suspension Bridgeman. He had a range of personal items on or around his person, which may be able to tell us something about circumstances as well as his personality. First of all, there was a square piece of cardboard with a handwritten message reading, Sleeping rough, thank you. There was also a black sleeping bag, a Great Britain A to Z map, a Euro hike adventure guide map, a Holy Bible, and a blank Barclays gyro slip.

The man, almost certainly, was homeless. But what else could investigators glean? Was he a man of God, devout in religion, perhaps? Or was this a red herring? Did the black gyro mean at the very least he was in receipt of funds or had a bank account? Or did it demonstrate that he was paying money to people he owed money to? As with everything, there are multiple ways to interpret each clue. Without looking into someone's DNA, specifically, it's impossible to say concretely where they're from. But from the possessions found at the scene, it was assumed that the man was a foreign visitor to the UK. Why else would he have a Euroheight roadmap. While we can't say for certain, the book may have been something he picked up or perhaps a future plan, the first theory was that this man had traveled to the UK for reasons unknown, but was without accommodation. Sadly, there is no way of knowing how long he'd been in the UK or where he was originally from. At least not yet. Clifton Suspension Bridgeman also had some particularly interesting reading material with him. The first was a copy of Thomas More's Utopia, printed in English.

Published more than 500 years ago, Utopia covers themes of wealth, power, slavery, and causes of injustice. And it discusses what a utopian society might look like, a society with no greed, no corruption, and no power struggles due to the fact that there's no money and private property.

It's certainly not lightweight reading, and this copy had no outer to cover, just a stamp on the first page saying West Glenmorgan County Council.

Had Clifton Suspension Bridgeman got the book from a library in West Glenmorgan?

That was over an hour and a half away by car from the place he was found.

While that seems likely, investigators couldn't discount the possibility that he'd simply found the book on his travels. It's also possible he was interested in the social and political themes covered in the book. Maybe he was a student studying the work. Or an alternative explanation, perhaps the book was just an opportunist means of practicing English. As with so many clues in this series, the book raises more questions than it answers. Police followed this line of inquiry all the way back to the library services in West Clamorgan. But frustratingly, because the front cover of the book was missing, vital information related to the last person who borrowed the book was also missing. Whoever had taken the book out of the library could not be identified. Then there was another book found, The Greatest Batman Stories. It was certainly different to the first, which suggests that Clifton Bridgeman perhaps had eclectic tastes. The final piece of this trove of clues was a red penny whistle. Was it a gift? Had he been busking on his travels, perhaps, entertaining people with this instrument? Investigators would hope that the whistle might have struck a chord with someone in the local community.

Perhaps it had stuck in someone's mind. Does this diverse collection of personal possessions strike a chord with you? Do they remind you of someone you once knew or someone you once met? Of course, memory is often easier to trigger with some tools than others. Which brings us to clue number two, the photograph. On his person, Clifton Bridgeman had a passport-sized photo of himself at a younger age. In it, he looks at the camera from just off center, his sandy hair pushed back from his high forehead, and his lips pursed almost in thought. He looks like he might be in his late teens or early 20s, definitely younger than when he was discovered at the base of the bridge. His hair, in particular, when his body was discovered, was more light brown than Sandy and cut shorter. This photo has been widely circulated across the last decade and a half, alongside an illustration of what Clifton Bridgeman looked like at the time of his death. Please head to location International's website to have a look at both pictures. They might spark a memory of a man you once knew, a man you once saw, a man reading Utopia or playing a penny whistle on the street.

Appeals about the Clifton Bridge man recently hit the press, and they prompted new leads. In fact, eight new pieces of information came forward. One person reported speaking to a man playing a penny whistle very well in Bristol around 1994. Another reported seeing him in Cardiff, which links with the book in his possession potentially having been obtained in Wales. But none of the leads were able to give this man a name. Locate International believe that the Clifton Bridge man can and will be identified one day. They believe he has a family somewhere who must be wondering what happened to him. It also seems certain that the answers lay in the southwest of the UK, perhaps Ingle Morgan, where the book was borrowed, or perhaps in Bristol, where the man may have slept rough. So cast your mind back. Could you piece these clues together? Thanks for listening to this series of Jigsaw. There'll be more episodes in the coming weeks and more updates as the team at Locate work through all of the tips, leads, and new possibilities shared by listeners.

You've been listening to Jigsaw, a bite-size podcast appeal from Locate International. They're the charity who work to reinvestigate missing people's cases with a mission to give a name to the unidentified. You can see images related to this case on their website, www. Locate. International.

On that website, you'll also find a forum, a discussion board where listeners can share ideas and information. You can discuss each case with other listeners, go deeper into the story, and provide details which investigators can follow.

That address again is www. Locate. Locate International. Locate International believe that everyone deserves dignity in death. If you have any relevant information or ideas you'd like to share with their investigators, please get in contact with them. The information you give us can be anonymous, and your information alone could help identify this man and reunite him with his name. We'd also really appreciate if you share it with your friends and family and leave a rating in a review that will help other people find this series. Jigsaw is produced by What's the Story Sounds. We also make The Missing and lots of other shows we think you might like. Why not sign up to What's the Story? Crime, where you can get exclusive access to all of our series first, as well as ad-free episodes, bonus content, and even an entire series you can't hear elsewhere. What's the Story, Crime is the number one choice for UK true crime series. Signing up is super easy. Just search for What's the Story? Crime in Apple Podcasts or follow the link on our show notes to get access on whatever platform you prefer to listen to. All the information is also available on www.

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