MYSTERY surrounds the death of wildlife lover Trevor Whitehead, whose body was found in a stream as his rucksack hung from a tree 30 feet overhead.

The Accrington man, who had been ‘missing’ for 59 days, was discovered by walkers in an isolated spot near Belthorn, after police and mountain rescue teams had conducted extensive searches of several East Lancashire moorlands.

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The 51-year-old’s body was found in a shallow section of Mean Brook on May 31, and when police arrived on the scene they noticed his blue rucksack hanging from the branch of a tree on one of the stream’s steep banks, an inquest at Blackburn Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.

A post-mortem examination was inconclusive, due to the decomposition of the body, so coroner Michael Singleton said it was impossible to determine what had happ-ened.

He added: “The difficulty I have first of all is that his rucksack was found on the branch of a tree, which gives rise to the possibility that he fell from that tree. But it’s equally possible he had fallen after coming back down to the steam.

“It’s possible he fell, it’s possible that he slipped, it’s possible that he collapsed. There’s no evidence he intended any harm to come to himself or that there was any third party involvement.”

The inquest heard Mr Whitehead, who was a cashier at the Skipton Building Society branch in Barnoldswick, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had been feeling unwell before he went missing.

The rucksack contained some energy bars and codeine tablets, which were likely to have been used to ease a pain he had complained of in his leg, the inquest heard. His tearful mum, Alice Whitehead, 70, of Primrose Street, Accrington, told the hearing: “He was quite a good lad most of the time but you never knew where you stood with him.

“He hadn’t been in good health for a number of years, he was pale and said he never had any energy. But I saw him the week he went missing and he was talking about buying a car.”

She added after the hearing: “He would go out every weekend and just loved being outside, but he would always say where he was going. It was terrible when he went missing and it made me ill to think about it.”

It was believed that Mr Whitehead, of Wordsworth Road, Accrington, was in possession of a pet terrapin when he disappeared, which he was planning to rehome, but this was not mentioned in the hearing.

Mr Singleton said: “He either died from a natural cause that’s unidentifiable or he died an accidental death from one of many ways. It’s not for me to guess as to which may in fact be the case. The only conclusion available to me is an open verdict.”