Remains of miner who went missing in 1967 found

‘Whoever did this robbed generations of a grandfather … and left six children without a father’ Russell Lowbridge

Grandson

Police have launched a murder investigation after human remains found in a Nottinghamshire field were identified as those of a miner who vanished after a night out at a pub 56 years ago.

A member of the public found the remains in Sutton-in-Ashfield in April, and Nottinghamshire police launched an appeal for information after a postmortem found that the person had been killed.

The bones have been identified as belonging to Alfred Swinscoe, who was 54 when he went missing in January 1967 in his home town of Pinxton, Derbyshire. Russell Lowbridge, 60, contacted police as the skeleton was found near to where his grandfather Alfred Swinscoe went missing in 1967 and matched his height of 5ft 5in.

DNA tests were carried out on family members and matched against the bones exhumed from the ground, revealing the remains to be Swinscoe’s.

At a press conference yesterday, the family appealed for anyone with information about the circumstances of Swinscoe’s death to come forward.

“This has been a mystery that has haunted our family for decades,” Lowbridge said. “Whoever did this robbed generations of a grandfather and great-grandfather, and left six children without a father. While we might be able to give my grandfather the proper funeral he deserves, we still don’t have the answers we desperately need.”

He said his uncle Gary, who died in November 2012, was “tormented” by his father’s disappearance, as he was with him at the pub on the night he vanished after saying he was going to use the toilet at about 10.30pm.

“He went to his grave never knowing what happened to his dad,” Lowbridge said. “He just remembers his dad giving him a ten bob note [50p] in the Pinxton Miners Arms that night, telling him to get a round and then never ever seeing him again.”

Lowbridge’s mother, 82-year-old Julie Swinscoe, was 25 at the time her father went missing. “It’s just so horrible. I would like to think I could die knowing the truth. Someone killed my dad and I want to know why. I need to know why.”

Described as a “hardworking” man by his family, Swinscoe worked at Langton Colliery from the age of 14.

The assistant chief constable Rob Griffin said: “I cannot imagine how distressing this must have been for Alfred’s family who have been waiting 56 years for answers. We know that Alfred was murdered. Despite this being a crime that happened more than 50 years ago, this will not stop us from using all the investigative skills at our disposal to find those responsible.”