In late September 1996, a young man was found dead just days after checking at a guesthouse in Cliftonville.
Despite extensive investigations in the almost three decades since, he has never been identified.
Volunteer investigators with the charity Locate International, that looks into cold cases of missing and unidentified people, have been conducting their own inquiries into the case of the man known only as Margate Man.
The charity is built of specialist teams from different disciplines and volunteers from local communities and works with universities, experts with academic research and exploration into cold cases to locate the missing and name the unidentified.
Now, 28 years to the day since the day his body was discovered, they are releasing a new living depiction of the man, produced by forensic artist Hew Morrison, in the hopes of identifying him.
The man checked into the Jolly Roger guesthouse in Gordon Road, on 24 September 1996.
The owner of the guesthouse reported that the man, who was of apparent Asian origin, arrived with no luggage, only a carrier bag. He was wearing white jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a blue denim jacket. He was believed to have been in his late 20s, 5’8” in height and weighed about 11 stone. He had a scar on one eyelid.
The visitor gave his name as only ‘Mr Kirasawara’. He is said to have told the owner of the guesthouse that he was Japanese and asked if there were any Japanese restaurants in the area. There were none at the time, and so he visited the local KFC instead.
He was found dead in the bed in his room by the guesthouse owner on 27 September 1996, three days after he checked in. A coroner later recorded a verdict of suicide, concluding he had taken an overdose of red antidepressant pills.
Investigators with Locate International believe the name Kirasawara may have been misspelt, and could have been Kirasawa, or another variation such as Kurosawa.
Research carried out by the team suggests the surname originates from Southern Japan, and that ‘Kira’ indicates an owner of land, or ‘shining’ or ‘radiant’, while ‘Sawa’ roughly translates to wet area/marsh. This may indicate what his familial or ancestorial background was.
They are asking whether the name might mean anything to someone now?
A dentist gave evidence at the inquest that the man may have been wealthy as he had received expensive cosmetic dental work. A news report on the inquest said of the dental work: “It was of a very high standard and anyone who knew the man would have recognised his broad, toothy grin.”
Mark Greenhalgh, Locate International’s CEO, said: “All the evidence suggests he was a visitor to Margate, so we would like to hear from anyone who may have encountered him while he was in the town, no matter how small the interaction.
“It’s possible he may have been visiting from abroad or from somewhere else in the UK, so maybe you remember a friend, colleague, neighbour, tenant or fellow guest who matches his description who you never saw again.
“No piece of information is too small: it can help confirm something we believe or can send our investigation in a whole new direction.”
Anyone with information, is asked to contact Locate International by emailing [email protected], calling 0300 102 1011 (in the UK) or by visiting
https://locate.international/unidentified-people/margate-man
how awful for him I hope family and friends can put a name to him it’s sad knowing he’s been gone 28 years and nor a proper send off x
He looks more of Samoan/mixed heritage, looking at that forensic drawing. I am assuming he was cremated, because if he was buried then Locate would likely have got an exhumation order & could run a DNA test on databases-though that is no guarantee of getting a hit.
DNA has come a long way since the 1990’s & we didn’t have people uploading their DNA to genealogy websites back then, not did forces take DNA swabs as a matter of course-so a relative could possibly be found now. Locate International recently had a tv series dealing with these types of cases that was interesting.
“Kurosawa” was the name of a leading Japanese film director. So perhaps it became a convenient assumed name, rather than a genuine clue.
Hi, I am surprised that the documents he would have had with him would have told a story, passport if he had come from another country, driving licence if is from the UK, bus ticket, or train ticket if he didn’t drive. Finger prints to see if he could be identified from a criminal record. Post on social media which is international. why was a picture of his face not taken by the police? An inspection of his belonging should reveal which country they were purchased in supporting whether he was from another country.
Trouble is for some reason they don’t make enough information publicly available.
Red pills lol surely they would have been sent off to the lab and been identified?
What were the blood levels of this drug? Etc etc etc
English or Japanese Antidepressants? was there a blister pack or bottle found nearby?
The file would be massive ‘if’ everything was done correctly at the time, which I doubt it was.
Hi, The red pill could have been “Ecstasy”, which will kill you. He may have thought he was exiting the Matrix, or perhaps he did who knows.