

An unidentified man found dead on a remote hillside could be a grandfather who has been missing for more than two decades, detectives have said.

Police in Greater Manchester have spent six weeks investigating the death of a pensioner-age man who travelled more than 200 miles to Saddleworth Moor and died during treacherous conditions. Now they are looking into whether the man could be Hugh Toner, who has been missing for more than two decades. Toner, who would now be 78, went missing from a hospital in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, on 7 February 1994.

Despite numerous appeals by his family and police, Toner has never been found.

Police believe he could be the same person who travelled to the secluded moor on 11 December and was found dead the day after. DNA samples have been requested from his family in Northern Ireland. He also had links to Bath and Swindon.

DS John Coleman, of Oldham CID, said: “We are keeping a completely open mind. We are still investigating other avenues but we are also looking into missing persons. We have requested DNA samples from the family of Mr Toner. There is a resemblance to our gentlemen and we are getting his DNA in order to establish whether this is the same person.”

A view of Saddleworth Moor where the body of a smartly dressed pensioner was found in a layby by a walker. Photograph: Sean Hansford/Manchester Evening News

A number of theories have been explored including that the man may have been making a pilgrimage to the scene of a plane crash that killed 24 people in 1949, possibly because he was related to one of the victims. Police said Toner does not have any links with the plane crash.

There was also speculation that the person found may have been one of the survivors of the plane crash. Two young boys survived the accident – Stephen Evans, five, and Michael Prestwich, two, were saved from the wreckage.

Prestwich later died in a train accident but police initially thought Evans was the unidentified man. But this was discounted after Evans, who now lives in Dorset, contacted police on Wednesday morning.

Evans was on the plane with his parents, Ruth and Horace, and his brother Roger. Evans and his parents were injured and his brother died. Coleman said: “Stephen rang me this morning and we spoke at length about the crash. He assisted in my inquiries but he does not have any links to the pensioner.”

Three babies were among those killed in the crash, which happened after the plane from Belfast struck a mist-covered hill in Saddleworth, about 15 miles from Manchester airport, its intended destination. Eight people survived. Police are still investigating links to the plane crash but said they were now also focusing on missing persons.

Coleman said: “We are keeping a completely open mind. It’s an ongoing, large piece of work and one of our lines of inquiry. Was this gentleman revisiting the scene of the crash because he was on the flight? Or he is a relative of anyone on the flight?”

The Air Investigation Unit and the National Crime Agency are involved in the search for names and addresses of people connected with the doomed 80-minute flight.

Last week, pictures of the dead man, aged between 65 and 75, were circulated to GPs nationwide, and detectives from Manchester travelled to London and visited hostels, hotels and pubs to try to discover his identity.

Officers identified the smartly dressed man in CCTV footage from Ealing, west London, where he is believed to have started his journey on the morning of 11 December. He arrived in Manchester shortly after midday after taking a train from London Euston, then went to Greenfield, near Saddleworth, and visited the Clarence pub at 2pm, where he asked the landlord how to get to the top of the 1,500ft (457m) Indian’s Head peak, above Dovestone reservoir.

Despite warnings from the landlord, Mel Robinson, about treacherous weather conditions, the man left the pub and was spotted by witnesses walking up the hill at about 4.30pm. His body was found the next morning by a passing cyclist, lying face up on a boggy section of track. He was wearing slip-on shoes and had £130 in cash in his pockets, along with three train tickets, including a return ticket to London. He was carrying no documentation.

An initial postmortem proved inconclusive and police are awaiting toxicology reports. A secondary autopsy is due next week.