Nichola Chapman, one of the officers investigating mysterious death, says she doesn’t believe man meant to kill himself

One of the detectives leading the investigation into a man’s mysterious death on Saddleworth Moor does not believe he intended to take his own life.

David Lytton died on the moor in December 2016, two days after flying to the UK from his adopted home in Pakistan. He had no wallet, mobile phone or identification with him when he died and his name remained unknown for months despite numerous public appeals, the release of CCTV footage and worldwide coverage of the story.

Lytton’s identity was finally revealed earlier this year and an inquest into his death on Tuesday recorded an open verdict. The coroner, Simon Nelson, said he was satisfied there had been no third-party involvement in Lytton’s death and that he had taken rat poison “by his own hand”.

During the making of a documentary about Lytton, however, DC Nichola Chapman said she did not believe he he had taken it deliberately.

The team behind Mystery of the Man on the Moor followed Chapman and her colleagues from Oldham CID for the duration of their 13-month investigation, during which they looked into the theory that Lytton could have been murdered.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Lytton at Manchester Piccadilly station in 2015. Photograph: Greater Manchester police/PA

There was a possibility that he had not known that his bottle of thyroid medication contained strychnine. Lytton, who was described as a “brilliant genius”, could have been given the poison by someone who had secretly placed it in his medicine bottle.

In the documentary, broadcast on Channel 4 at 10pm on Wednesday, Chapman says: “This is a super-sensitive subject. It is somebody’s life, somebody’s family member, somebody’s brother.



“It sometimes feels wrong to have a theory, but I think ultimately in our line of work you do come up with your own theory … I don’t think his intention was to die in Oldham that day.”



This uncertainty about Lytton’s death permeates the team of detectives, and at times they seem at a loss to explain why someone would cause themselves such a painful death.



DS John Coleman says: “We need to make sure there is no third party. Has he bought it himself or did someone else put it in [the bottle]?



“All the evidence suggests he has taken it himself, but still we are going to have to evidence that, make sure there is no third party. [We] need to find the sequence of events leading to his death. Was he in a sound mind?

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“I’ve never heard of it in the whole time I’ve been policing in the UK. It is known as the Agatha Christie drug. In the 1930s, she often used poisoning in her storylines. Spasms, painful death. Not a drug you would normally choose.”

Lytton’s family and friends supported the theory that he would not have killed himself at the inquest in Rochdale, but none were able to explain his reasons for travelling to Saddleworth that day.



Kelly Bragg of Oldham CID says: “It has raised more questions as we have gone on. We still don’t know 100% why he went to live in Pakistan, why he left his job and sold up. We still don’t know that information.



“He came back with 18kg of luggage, but we don’t know where that is. We know that he had a passport to get back into the country, but we don’t know where that is. We don’t know why he booked a hotel for five days and only stayed for one. We still don’t know why he came to Oldham. [There are] a lot of things we don’t have the answer to yet.”



In a particularly poignant moment during the documentary, Lytton’s brother, Jeremy, speaks of his regret that the two of them had not spoken for more than 10 years.



He says: “You always think you can make more effort, always. There comes a point when you can’t. I did try. I tried often. David didn’t do friends and he certainly didn’t do brothers. I always thought that if he went I would be OK, with the effort that I made, but of course then it happens, and you think, damn. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.”



Lytton was buried at Prestwich cemetery 13 months after his death.



Mystery of the Man on the Moor is on Channel 4, Wednesday at 10pm