Human remains found in woodland outside Bristol are believed to be those of the missing pensioner known as “DJ Derek”, police have said.

Derek Serpell-Morris, 73, who became known as “Britain’s oldest DJ” went missing in July 2015 after last being seen at the Criterion pub in Bristol.

Serpell-Morris retired from DJing in 2013 – though he played a one-off show on 31 December 2014 – after building a reputation for playing rocksteady, reggae, ska, dancehall and soul. He appeared in a Dizzee Rascal video and was admired by Massive Attack.

Avon and Somerset police said it had evidence that human remains found in the Patchway area of South Gloucestershire on Thursday were of Morris.

DCI Matthew Iddon said: “Earlier today we spoke with the family of Derek Serpell-Morris to inform them of this latest development. While we’re not yet in a position to confirm the remains are of Derek, we strongly believe this to be the case due to personal items found at the scene.

“This is a very distressing time for Derek’s family who’ve been carrying out an exhaustive campaign to locate him.”

A number of alleged sightings, including a photograph of a man at Waterloo, were reported in the past eight months. Police are treating the death as unexplained and a postmortem examination will be carried out by a Home Office pathologist to determine the cause of death.

Serpell-Morris’s great-niece Jennifer Griffiths said: “As soon as I heard the news last night I was convinced it was him. I have spoken to the rest of the family and we all feel the same way.

“In a way it would be closure for us if this was Derek but at the same time it would be awful; it would be the worst-case scenario. He used to get the bus to Cribbs Causeway all the time and we always felt that he could have ended up around that area.

“It just feels that we wasted all that time looking in the wrong places when he was there all the time. We are waiting to hear from the police. We are just waiting for that phone call. It just feels awful, we are all sitting here expecting the worse.”



Geoff Barrow, the instrumentalist for the band Portishead, posted a link to the Barbara Jones version of Just When I Needed You Most on Twitter in tribute to DJ Derek.

Ah man



RIP DJ Derek https://t.co/rr3t4PtkkO — Geoff Barrow (@jetfury) March 11, 2016

Serpell-Morris had been a resident of St Paul’s in Bristol since 1978 and was formerly an accountant for Cadbury before becoming a DJ in his mid-30s.