Man found in Lancashire woods was victim of ‘horrendous’ killing

4th May 2019

An 18-year-old man found murdered in woods was the victim of a “horrendous crime”, police have said.

The body of Alex Davies, from Skelmersdale in Lancashire, was discovered near Parbold Hill in the county on Wednesday.

Detectives have appealed for help to catch his killer, who they believe may have returned home with “blood on their clothes”.

Mr Davies had been reported missing the day before his body was found.

Lancashire Constabulary said a post-mortem examination had been carried out but the force could not release details of the teenager’s injuries for “operational reasons”.

Image copyrightGOOGLEParbold Hill
Image captionAlex Davies’ body was found near Parbold Hill, an area popular with walkers

Det Ch Insp Geoff Hurst urged people to come forward if they knew someone who had been acting suspiciously or had been seen with unexplained injuries or bloodied clothes.

“We are carrying out CCTV and house-to-house enquiries in the area to try and piece together Alex’s movements and to try to identify his killer,” he said.

“But I need the public’s help as someone out there could hold the key to solving this horrendous crime.”

Police said Mr Davies was last seen at 14:00 BST on Monday near a railway bridge on Station Road in Parbold.