Body found in Sydenham Hill Woods

[ALIB]

Yesterday morning, my fellow dogwalkers discovered the body of a black male in the undergrowth in Sydenham Woods.
I know it's technically in Southwark, but only just.

I don't have any more details, and it would be inappropriate to speculate at this stage

[the-e-dealer]

Has anyone checked this ? there doesnt seem to be any news about it?

[ALIB]

It's definitely true. The reason I was being reserved is i didn't want friends or relatives reading about it on STF first.
No doubt there will be an inquest into this. Initial news will probably be available in the next day or so, when the newspapers go to press.

Foul play does not appear to be involved, at this stage.

[Rachael]

If you don't mind me asking, what was the purpose of your original post?

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Lisa]

If you don't mind me asking, what was the purpose of your original post?

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

To breath some life back into this forum? It could certainly do with some.

- Matt

[sfhyouthforum]

You make somebody's death sound like this is an action-thriller, Lisa. This is a community forum, not a tabloid, which interestingly highlights some people's insatiable appetite for high drama: stabbing, death, crime.

Go and watch television, instead of adding yet more fear into a community that doesn't need it. Or perhaps contribute to this thread and restore the balance by adding some positive input: http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7240

[Scouse Billy]

I often take Cox's Walk as a pleasant alternative to walking up Lordship Lane to Forest Hill.

On Monday, I passed a couple of policeman and saw two of their colleagues and two men carrying a stretcher up the old embankment. This was above the bridge, maybe 60 metres short of the exit on Sydenham Hill.

Can't exactly describe what I felt save to say a strong sense of something horribly wrong - maybe the silence and demeanor of the policeman on the path were subconsciously interpreted.

I stopped and addressed one of them, "is that person... going to be ok?"

"Being brought up on a stretcher, I wouldn't think so." was the terse response - nothing more to be said.

Oddly enough, in the health shop on Sydenham High Street yesterday afternoon, I overheard (eaves-dropped) a customer telling the owner how few local murders get reported on the news.
He mentioned a body being found in the woods, so I asked him if it was Monday, explaining whar I had seen. He was unsure, presumably having heard it on the grapevine.

Well, I searched for "body found in Sydenham Hill Woods" and this is all I could find.

So a big thank you for corroborating what I suspected and overheard - thought I'd share what I witnessed.

And, yes, it does matter what is reported. The hard facts and truth are precious commodities in this modern world of perpetual "spin" or "universal deceit".

[Tim Lund]

And, yes, it does matter what is reported. The hard facts and truth are precious commodities in this modern world of perpetual "spin" or "universal deceit".

They are indeed, although I suspect facts about deaths are the least spun of any news, now or in the past. I'm currently reading this book


which uses coroner's court statistics as a proxy for level of violence, because the authorities have wanted to account for dead bodies accurately for centuries. If this poor unfortunate turns out to have been murdered, I have little doubt it will come to light. In the meantime, it's worth remembering the statistic Simon quoted here recently about the murder rate declining over the last ten years.

Although I'd go along with Pinker's use of statistics for the most part, I have also been wondering if there are biases to gloss over murders, and call them accidents. Maybe, in an era more tolerant of domestic violence, some murders would have gone unrecorded ...

[NatashaM]

If ALIB's friends actually found the body and he can confidently say that foul play is not suspected isn't it most likely to have been a suicide?

[Rachael]

Rod - I absolutely agree, which is why I posed my question upthread. I don't for one moment think that the OP's reasons for posting this information were prurient. But I read it and though: 'Why do I need to know this?' and when the OP posted again to say that he hadn't wanted to say too much, for very good reasons, I thought: 'Then why say anything at all?' So I really did want to know why the OP posted in the first place - not to be censorious, but just to understand his thinking, in case there was something I missed.

In some circumstances it is useful to share this information - if it appears to have been under or unreported and there is a public interest, for example. But at these early stages, when we have no idea what the circumstances are, I don't think it is appropriate. It's either a tragedy or a crime. Either way, speculation here is not helpful.

[admin]

When a body is unexpectantly discovered in Sydenham is not unreasonable and could be in the public interest to report it here. So ALIB did IMHO the right thing.

The difficulty comes afterwards with the morbid and possibly dangerous speculation. In view of the above I have decided to lock the thread. If and when more information becomes available from a public source as to the nature of this death then do please feel free to post that information in a new thread and link back to this for background.

Hopefully this will not annoy anyone. If it does please PM me.

Admin