Man recognized after human stays discovered at Festival Park as household open up on ‘tragic loss’
A family has revealed their ‘tragic loss’ after human remains were found close to Stoke-on-Trent – DNA evidence has now linked the remains to missing Darren Green
A devastated family has said they have suffered a “tragic loss” after human remains were found.
The remains were discovered on March 2 by a member of the public near Festival Park in Etruria, close to Stoke-on-Trent. Since, DNA evidence has linked the remains to missing Darren Green.
Green went missing on July 16 last year. The death of the 42-year-old from Stoke is not being treated as suspicious.
His family thanked police in a moving statement. They said: “Today we have been informed of the tragic loss of Darren. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody affected by this.
“We would like to thank the emergency services and Staffordshire Police for their professionalism, care and understanding and ask that our privacy be respected at this sad time.”
Speclialist officers are supporting the family, Staffordshire Police said.
According to StokeonTrentLive, a Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “The remains of a human skeleton discovered in Stoke-on-Trent have sadly been identified as missing person Darren Green. Specially-trained officers are supporting his family at this difficult time.
“As part of our investigation, detectives and forensic teams, including an anthropologist, a botanist and an archaeologist, carried out a thorough inspection of the scene over a number of days. DNA analysis was used to identify Darren.”
The development comes after remains were found earlier this month and police attended the scene.
An area of woodland and footpaths behind offices on Festival Way were been cordoned off, with four police vehicles and a forensics van at the scene.
Four forensic officers in white suits were seen going in and out of a large blue tent set up on a hilly wooded area.
Elsewhere, police in the Republic of Ireland said remains exhumed from a grave in County Monaghan are not those of Disappeared victim of the Troubles Joe Lynskey.
Mr Lynskey, a former monk from Belfast who later joined the IRA, was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by members of the republican paramilitary group in 1972.
He was one of 17 people who were Disappeared by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said the remains recovered from the grave in the village of Annyalla also do not belong to any member of the family who own the plot.
The ICLVR further confirmed that the remains were not those of any of the three other Disappeared victims murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles whom the commission continues to search for.
The Irish police service, An Garda Siochana, is now attempting to identify the remains.
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