Known man dies for unknown reason

January 26, 2017 4:02 AM

The mystery behind the identity of a man found dead on Saddleworth Moor more than a year ago has been solved. 'Coroner says man found at Dovestone reservoir, Greater Manchester, in 2015 was 67-year-old David Lytton... In a short hearing at Heywood coroner’s court, it was confirmed that officers had checked passenger records from a flight from Lahore in Pakistan, which tallied with Lytton’s details.' Also being covered by the Manchester Evening News. Previously.
posted by plep (24 comments total)

The reason he died is he ingested strychnine, a "poison used in many Agatha Christie novels."
posted by chavenet at 4:18 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm glad that he's been identified and his relatives informed, even if it doesn't explain what happened. Hope the press heed the coroner's calls that his family "not be subjected to any unnecessary intrusion". Wonder if we'll learn anything after the hearing on the 14th March or if his death will just remain unexplained.
posted by comealongpole at 5:00 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

The reason he died is he ingested strychnine, a "poison used in many Agatha Christie novels."

That's a cause of death, not a reason - it's how, not why.
posted by Dysk at 6:19 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

That's a cause of death, not a reason - it's how, not why.

Unfortunately, that's usually all you get.
posted by sexyrobot at 7:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh come on, we all KNOW, the butler did it, and he would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those pesky kids!
posted by evilDoug at 7:12 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hmmm. Should I go for the worst possible opening sentence for Lytton's obituary, or stick with the variant that also keeps it under 200 characters?
posted by delfin at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Interesting how a guy in Lahore can buy a one-way ticket to London and it doesn't trigger any terror investigations. Really? A male traveling alone buying a one-way ticket from a known terrorism area to London should set off some red flags, regardless of age or citizenship. Funny how it took over a year for the police to get this information.
posted by grounded at 7:26 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

grounded, I think you may overestimate the rarity of people travelling by airplane from Pakistan to the UK.

This article is unsatisfying in that all it gives us is a name, and nothing more about David Lytton. Where's the juicy speculation about how his public school was a known recruiting ground for spies? Or an interview with someone who knew him who mentioned he would disappear for months at a time? Please at least give us something about the weird brand of tobacco he favored.

The Manchester Evening News has a bit more. But all it added over the Guardian is that he's from London.

There's also a Wikipedia article.
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Interesting how a guy in Lahore can buy a one-way ticket to London and it doesn't trigger any terror investigations. Really? A male traveling alone buying a one-way ticket from a known terrorism area to London should set off some red flags, regardless of age or citizenship.

The UK has a large British Pakistani population, many of whom are of Punjabi origin. Regular flights happen several times a week. As Nelson says, it's not unusual.
posted by mushhushshu at 9:03 AM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]

Oh great even the murders have gone vintage and artisan
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:57 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Interesting that the man had an English name. Was he a person of mixed heritage?
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:34 AM on January 26, 2017

Please follow up in March, plep.
posted by superfish at 10:44 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ace work by the Old Bill. That said, I see the placename Saddleworth Moor and shudder... Ian Brady + Myra Hindley
posted by Mister Bijou at 11:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

.
posted by thelonius at 11:06 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Thank you for remembering that he was a human being, thelonius, and not just an interesting puzzle.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:38 AM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

Oh come on, we all KNOW, the butler did it,

I think it's likely that Bulwer did it, on a dark and stormy night.
posted by rhizome at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Please do follow up if more information is discovered! What a strange and sad tragedy. I doubt that more information will come out. I can't think of any other likely possibility other than he chose to go to a remote place and quietly and anonymously take his life. The whys and why in that way, in that place might just stay with him, wherever his spirit is now. May he rest in peace. This story and the aloneness of his death makes me really sad.
posted by branravenraven at 3:02 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

He must have had identification to fly..
What happened to it? Did he throw it away so he would remain anonymous?
posted by branravenraven at 3:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I imagine it's simply that this was a place of great significance for David Lytton, a place that he knew and loved, perhaps had shared with somebody else he loved.
posted by Flashman at 6:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

According to The Times today, David Lytton was an expat living in Pakistan. For example, he could have been married to a Pakistani national, or even conceivably he could have been spent part of his childhood there or had other family connections, e.g. through the British presence on the subcontinent (if he was 67 in 2015, he would have been born on or around 1948; Pakistan and India gained independence in 1947).

On another point, of course air travel between Lahore and the UK is entirely normal and I'm surprised that anyone should consider it to be otherwise, 'terrorism' or 'no terrorism'; Skyscanner shows multiple options to travel between the two cities this weekend alone, and indeed when US nationals were funding the IRA - i.e. when the US was, from a British perspective, a 'known terrorism area' - it was still entirely normal and possible to travel between the UK and the USA. (Maybe this thinking is a symptom of the Trump factor at work?).
posted by plep at 1:55 AM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Less Agatha Christie, more Ian McEwan, I think.
posted by Brian Lux at 3:45 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

.

Thanks for posting this, plep. I remember reading the previous article in the Guardian and had thought of him occasionally since, and wondered if they'd ever found out who he was, and why he'd ended up there. I'm glad they're a step closer. I like to think he went for a walk in a favourite spot, lay down for a nap and passed away in his sleep, but who knows.

Enough with the butler/etc. lolz, please guys - this is a man who died recently, alone, and apparently unmissed, not a set up for your punchline.
posted by penguin pie at 4:29 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Sky News has been talking to David Lytton's former neighbours.
posted by mushhushshu at 4:51 AM on January 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Further follow-ups from the Graun: speculation as to why he changed his surname, and an indication that Channel 4 is making a documentary. (Let's hope it's more Dispatches than Benefits Street.)
posted by mushhushshu at 4:01 AM on February 10, 2017