A NORTH-East police force is seeking the help of the UK Missing Person’s Bureau to identify two missing people on their records – the oldest dating back to 1970.

The Bureau, created in 2008, provides a review of the number of bodies and body parts that remain unidentified and allows police forces to call a central team to match details of current or historic missing cases.

The two outstanding cases which Cleveland Police hold relate to a body - age and sex unconfirmed - washed up on the beach at Redcar in 1970 and a man found in woods near to the A178 Graythorpe to Seal Sands Road in Hartlepool in 1981.

The body at Redcar was wearing black boots, multi coloured red and fawn socks and a leather belt.

The man in Hartlepool was approximately 20-30 years old, 170cm tall, with mousey collar length hair and blue eyes.

He was wearing a blue and navy blue striped jumper, checked shirt and grey corduroy trousers. His white Adidas training shoes had '‘SAYER’ written in pen on the inside.

Detective Inspector Paul Tait, head of Cleveland Police’s force intelligence bureau, said: “It would be extremely optimistic to expect the use of the website to bring about closure to both cases, we can only hope that with such public access to these cases and the passage of time, it may shed new light on them and bring about a positive result.”

The database can be accessed by anyone via www.misingpersonspolice.uk and any suggestions as to the possible identity of individuals can be relayed back to the Bureau.