The death of a loving dad who was missing for more than five years remains a mystery.
James Hodgkiss was last seen by his girlfriend, in the early hours of August 3, 2016. The body of the dad-of-two was found nearly six years later, on January 24, 2022.
He was found in a peat bog, on Red Moss nature reserve, Horwich, but how he came to be there still remains unknown. Yesterday, June 21, at an inquest into the 34-year-old's death, coroner professor Alan Walsh recorded an open conclusion.
James was formally identified by dental records, a forensic archaeologist, and forensic anthropologists. However, the inquest which heard evidence from both the period leading up to his disappearance and the time following his discovery could not answer how or when he died, the MEN reports.
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The court heard that he struggled with a drug addiction in the years leading up to him going missing. Giving evidence, his mother, Christine Hodgkiss, said on August that she had picked him up from Weston Street and tried to take him to hospital due to his state.
He refused to go into the hospital and after taking him back and forth on a few occasions she dropped him off at his father's address in Blackrod in the early hours of August 2. This was the last time Christine saw her son, and she would report him missing on August 5.
John Hodgkiss told the court that on the morning of August 2 he dropped James at Weston Street, as he often did, but had no contact with him again after this. He told the court that James would often turn up at his address, walking all the way from Bolton, always taking one of two routes.
The peat bog where James was found in 2022 was around three quarters of a mile away from John's address. However, John told the court that James would never take this route as it would make 'no sense'.
Jenny McDonagh, James's long term partner, said that around 2am on August 3 he threw stones at the window of her house in Little Hulton and they spoke briefly. After this brief conversation James walked away without saying where he was going. This was the last confirmed sighting of James.
Forensic archaeologist, Alison Baldry, who carried out a search in the area where James's remains were found, said only bones were found, some of which were underwater in a ditch. She added there was no evidence that James had been buried by anyone else.
Home Office pathologist Dr Phillip Lumb, suggested that James may have suffered hypothermia leading up to his death, but this couldn't be 'substantiated' with evidence and would be unlikely due to it being in the summer. Dr Lumb gave James's cause of death as 'unascertained due to skeletal remains' and that 'nothing can be supported by evidence'.
This included not knowing when, where, or how James died. He added that there were limited tests that could be done and they were not worth doing as they would not provide any clear answers.
Professor Walsh, giving an open conclusion into James's death, said: "The investigation was as thorough as it could be bearing in mind the unknowns." He added: "I couldn't exclude natural causes, accident, or third party involvement.
"He seemed to live a double life. He cared for his children and was good with his children, but then he had another life which was born out of drug dependency."
He described what happened as his last sighting as a mystery and finding out was "just currently not possible to answer". "There is insufficient evidence to say what happened...We don't know how he came to be in that area or how he came to die."
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