Human Wreckage True Crime

He traveled 4,000 miles to die on a hillside no one knows why. Story of David Lytton

• Thomas W

Share episode
Speaker 1:

You're listening to Human Records, true Stories from the Edge of Understanding. Where identity fractures, truth erodes and only questions remain. On a cold December afternoon in 2015, a man was found dead on a remote hillside in the Peak District of England. No ID, no phone, no reason to be there, just a body lying by a reservoir beneath the shadow of a place called Saddleworth Moor. His name, they would later discover, was David Litton, but that name only led to more questions. He had arrived in the UK on a one-way ticket from Pakistan. He carried 130 in cash. He asked for directions to the top of the mountain and then seemingly chose to die. No one knew why. Who was David Lytton really? Why did he call himself Neil Dovestone? What drove him across continents to a lonely death on a freezing English hillside? This is the mystery of Neil Dovestone, a case tangled in false identities, unanswered calls and a trail that leads from the quiet suburbs of London to the rugged hills of northern England and far beyond.

Speaker 1:

Saddleworth Moor upholds an unusual amount of serenity and natural wonder in the northwest of England. Its bleak landscape stretches for almost 30 square miles and its lakes lie still and silent unless disturbed by the usual drizzle of the Yorkshire weather. Its beauty is a stark contrast from the dark history it has been tarnished with over the years. Beside those sickening Moors murders of the 60s, the peaceful Moors are remembered by many locals for even further tragedies. In 1949, a Douglas aircraft crashed there, leaving 24 passengers and crew members dead. Traveling over the Moors, the plane was suddenly enveloped in a thick fog and the helpless pilot clipped the peak of a hill. The aircraft was torn apart and burst into flames, falling onto land overlooked by the Dovestone Reservoir. That day of August 19, 1949 will be remembered by many, not only due to the disaster at the Moors but because only an hour later, a Proctor Light aircraft crashed just 40 miles away from the first crash site. All four passengers died in that second crash and the County of Yorkshire was hit with unexpected mourning.

Speaker 1:

Further forward into Saddleworth's morbid history is the case of Neil Dovestone. At first glance, the case seems like the plot of an elaborate Agatha Christie novel. From the subject's name, the bleak location to the poison found tucked in the pocket of his corpse, you would be forgiven for thinking this case was entirely fictional. However, the case of Neil Dovestone remains one of the most intriguing mysteries of modern British history, and the details are as confusing as they are tragic.

Speaker 1:

On December 10, 2015, an elderly man boarded a plane from Lahore, pakistan, to London. After his 4,000-mile journey, the seemingly normal-looking man traveled a further 197 miles north, to Saddleworth. He had no suitcase or hand luggage, and he was dressed simply in a matte coat, plain trousers and loafers on his feet. As he walked into the Clarence Pub at 2 pm on December 11th, pub landlord Mel Robinson took notice of this. After all, the majority of his patrons were hikers, well-equipped for the long journey across the rugged terrain of Saddleworth Moor. Looking at the lone pensioner before him, who was a tall white man with receding gray hair, brown eyes and a prominent nose, something struck him as odd. He asked for directions to the top of the mountain, the summit of the 1,500-foot peak above Dovestone Reservoir. Despite his out-of-place appearance, he appeared to be acting normally, with no signs of confusion. He didn't want a drink, not even a glass of water. You won't get up to the summit and back down before dark, may have been the last words spoken to this man. Ignoring his warning, the strange man simply thanked Mel and continued on his way through the misty rain on that cold winter's afternoon For cyclists wanting a more challenging ride.

Speaker 1:

The paths jutting through Saddleworth Moor are ideal. The steep inclines of the mountainous path, along with the sudden descents, are ideal for those wishing to test their skills. On December 12th, stuart Crother was doing just that. 12th, stuart Crother was doing just that. A few hours into his bike ride, stuart was caught in a storm of freezing, torrential rain when he came across an unusual, slightly amusing sight. A man was lounging on the banks of the hill. Although wearing a waterproof mac, it was no match for the heavy rain and he was soaking wet. Calling out to him was useless, as the thundering rain deafened any voices. He was lying still with his arms crossed comfortably over his stomach, as if he was cloud-watching.

Speaker 1:

Edging closer, reality hit Stewart like a freight train. He discovered that the elderly man wasn't resting at all he was dead. When members of Saddleworth's dedicated team of mountain rescue volunteers arrived on scene, they immediately suspected that the man had suffered from a heart attack after a long hike. When police arrived, they searched the man for any form of identification. $130 was found in his pocket. This seemed an unusual amount of cash to carry around on the Saddleworth Moors, especially due to the fact that he had no wallet to contain it in An empty medicine box was found in his pocket. It was labeled thyroxine sodium and had writing in both Urdu and English on it, with no passport or driving license on him.

Speaker 1:

The man's identity was a mystery. For the first time in history, saddleworth Moore appeared to have its very own John Doe when transported to the Royal Oldham Hospital, however, morticians affectionately nicknamed him Neil Dovestone after the place he was found. Sympathy for the sweet old man quickly turned to sadness and intrigue as the cause of death was revealed. It hadn't been a heart attack. It was strychnine poisoning. This particular poison, once used for pest control in the UK, remains a popular poison of choice in Pakistan, where it is used to control the feral dog population. Once fatally consumed, the muscles of the animal slowly contract and death is slow and painful. Is this how Neil Dovestone really wanted to die? Did he think of himself as a pest that needed to be wiped out?

Speaker 1:

As is custom with such cases of unidentified bodies, one mystery solved leads to a dozen more questions. Why had this man traveled all the way from Pakistan to commit suicide on a hillside? More importantly, was it actually suicide? After working tirelessly, his identity was unearthed in the oddest way possible. It was noted during autopsy that Neil Dovestone had undergone surgery on his hip at some point in his life. Many surgical plates used in such operations are printed with a specific serial number purely for the manufacturer's benefit. Searching the database, investigators were able to find a massive clue that the plate design was only legal in Pakistan and that it was fitted in a hospital in Lahore.

Speaker 1:

In January 2017, we could finally put a name to this unidentified face David Lytton. He was 67 years old at the time of his death and was born to Jewish parents. As David Lautenberg in London, after a family feud, david changed his surname, lived alone before unexpectedly moving to Pakistan with a man named Solemn Actor in 2006. Trying to build the case further, attention turned to David's family and friends. His brother described him as a bit of a loner, and his girlfriend of 35 years, maureen Tugud, recalled how he suffered through bouts of depression after she miscarried David's unborn child.

Speaker 1:

Amateur sleuths on popular forum platform Reddit were keen to examine the bizarre case, focusing on some minor details that could prove important. When he arrived in London two days before his death, lytton met with his long-time friend, salim Akhtar. Akhtar dropped him off at a travel lodge in Ealing where he booked to stay at the hotel for five days, paying in cash For whatever reason. David had stayed in his room for just one night. There is also the question of his plane ticket. He purchased a return. Why would he buy a pricey return ticket if he had intended on not coming back to Lahore?

Speaker 1:

Rumors quickly circulated that David Lytton had been a spy In espionage. An L-pill is given to spies in order to avoid a torturous death should they ever be captured by the enemy. Normally, a small capsule containing cyanide is swallowed by an agent, resulting in a quick death. For many theorists at the time, this seemed a likely explanation as to what had happened. If David had intended to travel to London for a few days on some sort of secret mission and was compromised by somebody at the airport, then traveling up a cold, wet hill to kill himself and confuse experts and amateurs alike seemed like a pretty smart idea to protect his identity as an agent of espionage. Far-fetched as it seems, it is only fair to admit that anything could be possible in this bizarre case.

Speaker 1:

Back in Pakistan, his neighbors recalled an incident that happened just a week before his death In early December. David had frantically ran into local travel agents and demanded a one-way ticket back to London. Unusually, david was unable to speak a word of Urdu, despite having lived in the country for nine years. Whatever it was, something had panicked the man so much that he wanted to return home, perhaps to safety. It seemed likely that David was either running from something or someone. Frustratingly, we still have no definite answers. After the inquest into David Litton's death in 2017, the coroner stated that fundamental questions remain unsolved and an open verdict was recorded. In other words, despite all the clues to the case, nobody truly knows what happened in the final few days of David Litton's life. The case is both frustrating yet tragic for the immeasurably clever, quiet man who once had dreams of becoming a psychiatrist. His brother, jeremy, reminisced back to their childhood and stated that David was not of this century. Whether he was a victim of his own mind or of something equally as sinister remains an open question that can never be answered.

Speaker 1:

David Lytton crossed borders, oceans and years of silence to reach the top of Saddleworth Moor. He didn't leave a note, he didn't ask for help and he didn't expect to be remembered, but he was In death. He sparked one of the most confounding identity mysteries in recent British history, a man who became a question mark in the eyes of the public, the police and even those who once knew him. What drove him to that cold hillside Mental illness, isolation, a final act of control We'll never know for certain. But what we do know is this behind every anonymous body, every name on a coroner's sheet, is a life, a story, a wreckage waiting to be understood. David Lytton was someone's brother, someone's friend, someone who, like all of us, carried his past like a shadow and in the end, even that shadow disappeared into the fog. Thanks for listening to Human Wreckage. If you found this story moving or unsettling, share it, because stories like David's remind us the mystery is never just about how someone died. It's about how they lived and why they vanished in the first place. Outro Music.