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A man missing for 42 months was identified by using DNA taken a foot that washed up on beach.

The grim discovery was made by a holidaymaker on April 6 this year at Glandwr near Dwyran in Wales.

DNA tests on nails and bones of a foot inside a sock and black Doctor Marten shoematched Richard Thomas, last seen on Christmas Eve 2013.

Mr Thomas, who was 47, was reported missing from his home in Maesgeirchen, Bangor on December 31, 2013.

A massive search by North Wales Police failed to find him, the Daily Post reports .

Recording an open conclusion at an inquest in Caernarfon, North Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones said: “This is a very unusual case in that on Tuesday, May 24, I received a report that a Doc Marten shoe was found at a beach at Glandwr, Dwyran.

“I was informed that this shoe had in it a sock and bones of a foot. At this stage there was nothing to indicate whose foot it was.

"It was quite obvious the foot had been in the sea; it was found on the tide line.”

A statement by holidaymaker David Cowan said he had been walking along the beach when he “noticed a shoe and there was a sock and what I thought was bone”.

He took photos and sent them to a forensic pathologist friend who confirmed it was a human foot.

Mr Pritchard-Jones said North Wales Police sent the foot to Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers who compared it to DNA samples of missing people.

“Samples were also sent to a specialist forensic company who were able to confirm that the bones and the DNA sample matched and belonged to Richard Thomas, who had been born in Lincolnshire, but who had lived at Plas Marchogion, Maesgeirchen."

(Image: Chris Andrews / Creative Commons)

PC Jennifer Blakemore said Mr Thomas was last seen on December 24 2013 when he was released from the Hergest psychiatric unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor.

She said he was due to be visited at home by a healthcare worker on December 31 but was not there.

She said it was a wet, dark afternoon when he was released and they only had grainy but inconclusive footage of a figure walking near Ysbyty Gwynedd and near the Antelope pub.

When the worker had no reply the following day, police were called and forced entry into his flat when only the cat was found.

PC Blakemore said Mr Thomas’ daughter, Heidi, had last seen him on December 24 when she had taken him Christmas presents.

The officer said: “She was under the impression he was to be there over Christmas and the New Year.”

Police searches and enquiries proved negative but on January 4 2014 a blue rucksack was found with a pair of black jeans, aftershave and a wooden box with a Red Dragon on it.

Unfortunately, the finder left the bag nearby and it must have been washed back into the Strait, the inquest heard.

A local person told police that Mr Thomas would some times pitch a tent nearby during the summer months.

Summing up, Mr Pritchard-Jones said: “He could have thrown himself into the Strait; he could have been taken ill; anything could have happened. We really have no evidence at all of the circumstances of his death.”