AN INQUEST is to be held into the death of a retired scientist whose body was found stuck in a bog on Upton Heath on the outskirts of Poole.

Robert Kenneth Alty's body was found by a dog walker on the heath almost a month after the 75-year-old had been reported missing following a shopping trip to Poole.

Mr Alty had been waiting near the Post Office in Poole High Street on March 17, while his wife was shopping at the nearby Iceland foodstore, when he went missing.

The last confirmed sighting of the retired scientist, who worked at the former Winfrith atomic research site until 1990, came when he was spotted on CCTV cameras at Poole bus station.

Mr Alty, of Northmoor Way in Wareham, was thought to have been suffering from the early stages of dementia when he went missing.

Dorset Police issued appeals for help to find the 75-year-old and asked bed and breakfast establishments, hotels and shoppers to get in contact if they knew of the elderly man's whereabouts.

But nothing more was heard of Mr Alty until the evening of April 9 when a dog walker reported finding his body in a boggy area of Upton Heath.

The walker's dog, a spaniel, had gone into a fairly inaccessible area of undergrowth on the heath, about 150 metres north of the old railway line, and discovered Mr Alty's body.

A date for an inquest into Mr Alty's death is expected to be announced soon.

First published: May 9