Did anybody see him?
Where's the money?
All I know is, he was there and then he was gone.
It got to the point we thought no,
this is the perfect scam.
And it's actually very clever.
To this day nobody knows who he is.
He was last seen at the other end of this alley.
The world is riddled with strange unsolved mysteries.
I've made it my life's work to investigate
and crack them once and for all.
On the 22nd of June 2019 the British town of Woolaston
had its annual village fete.
midway through the day,
an unexpected visitor disrupted the event.
A mystery man in a morph suit,
communicating only through the medium of mime.
Very strange.
He claimed to be collecting for the local village hall,
asking the public to guess his identity for a pound.
But once he had collected the cash,
which included children's pocket money and hard earned pensions,
he climbed into a vintage car and disappeared.
Never to be seen again.
That's so mean.
it just exploded, it went everywhere.
It was picked up by the nationals and then all over the world.
People were guessing, people commenting on his body shape
and saying he's got a square bottom, he's got a paunch,
he looks old, he looks young.
To this day, nobody knows who he is.
All the people of Woolaston
and the world's media are now wondering,
who is this mystery man?
I've just arrived in Woolaston.
I'm about to get to the bottom of who this mystery man really is.
My first stop, the local inn.
- Hello, you must be Richard. - I am, yes.
So. I've heard you've got some information on the
Woolaston mystery man.
He was first in contact with us the night before the carnival.
He actually messaged our Facebook page
but, because everybody was preoccupied with
everything else going on in the carnival the next day,
the message really wasn't picked up.
Just got a vague memory of it saying "I'm the Woolaston mystery man."
"I will be coming to the carnival tomorrow.
See you there."
But then, on the Sunday, his Facebook page was removed,
so the message automatically got deleted.
That is very intriguing.
So then when you were at the fete, the festival, what do you remember?
Do you remember seeing him there?
Yeah.
He was dancing along with the samba band, handing out leaflets.
He was approximately six foot tall.
He was in quite good shape actually to tell you the truth,
to be able to wear the one piece suit.
He was only ever doing mimes and actions with his hands.
He never spoke a word.
Apparently the mime artist had a square ass.
I don't remember that.
- But apparently it was very square,
like, square that you would catch anyone's attention.
OK.
So, where were you when you found out that this
mystery man had done a runner?
We were in here, we were having an after carnival party.
Then the questions started coming up.
"Did anybody see him? Where's the money?"
He was last seen going out the village
around about quarter to three,
heading down towards the main A48.
Then he's gone.
Any ideas of who it could be?
No, not at all.
- Not at all. - Not at all.
Are you sure?
100 percent.
OK.
Do you know anyone who has any evidence of
the Woolaston mystery man?
Yes, you're in luck.
Sohal at the Netherend Stores,
he has actually got him on CCTV.
Really?
Yes he has.
Brilliant, I'm going to make my way there now.
Netherend Stores, here we are.
So I've been told you have some CCTV footage of the mystery man.
That's right, yes.
Can I take a look at it?
Yes, of course.
- Sorry, yeah. - No worries.
Maybe the footage has gone missing.
The footage has been wiped.
- It's the mystery man. - Yes.
He's stuck it on the window and then he's just left.
- Stuck on your window? - So I came in early morning
and I see that on the window
because he's selling his costume.
Do you have any idea of who that could be?
He came from the Netherend pub,
so he parked his car on the Netherend,
his sticker was there as well, the sticker.
Then he came back by walking,
and then he's going to the pub.
I couldn't believe that the mystery man had the audacity to come back to
the scene of the crime to sell his monstrous suit.
Still claiming to be donating to Woolaston Hall.
Looking closer at Sohal's CCTV footage.
I swore I recognized the hooded man.
It looks a bit like Richard from the pub.
Does it?
- It looks a bit like him.
Did you notice that?
But he's not old like Richard anyway.
So you think this guy's older?
Yes definitely.
Very interesting.
Thank you very much.
The CCTV may have reminded me of the landlord
but the face was unfortunately too obscured
to come to any solid conclusions.
I needed to get more of an understanding of what
really happened that day.
I needed to meet the organizer of the village fete.
So you're were the organizer of the village fete?
Yes, I am really, yeah.
I think the title is co-ordinator of the carnival but, yes.
Where was the mystery man last seen?
He was last seen at the other end of this alley.
Right.
I believe he was seen to get into a white car with a female.
- That's the other thing, - A female?
recently a female has come into the picture which we didn't know about.
How reliable do you think that piece of information is?
I believe that someone's got it on their dash cam.
So the mystery man would have walked this exact path?
Yes, yes indeed.
So he would know the town well, he would be aware of the route to go?
- Oh, yes, yes,
again, this is not used very much apart from the school.
So if you could paint me a picture of what happened that day?
Yeah, at the moment we're walking across an area where there was
one of our two large marquees.
The dog show would be going over there.
Llamas would be under the tree with the horses and Basset Hounds.
Like a zoo.
And where was the mystery man during all of this?
Well he came in the far end,
the opposite end of where we are now.
With all the floats etc. who park up the other end of the football pitch
and then just started to mingle
and trying to get people to pay their pound.
Fairly agile because he was not running but he was
moving from place to place and very friendly.
And where were you during the festivities?
Right, just across here would be a roll of classic cars.
So I drove straight there, parked up and then went to the stage.
Can someone vouch for your whereabouts on that day?
Oh yeah, yes.
There's loads of photographs
- A vintage car,
apparently the getaway vehicle of the mystery man.
Suspicious.
It's interesting you say that because several people have said
that they thought it was me.
Nobody has yet identified the woman in the car?
No, no, no.
OK, OK.
Thank you, I've got a lot to work with.
- It's been great to talk to you. - And you.
- Good to meet you. - You too.
The mystery man could literally be anyone.
Anyone here.
There's a guy in a suit over here.
Looks a bit suspicious, looks a bit out of place.
Hello.
Maybe he's an undertaker, he looks like an undertaker.
Maybe someone's died.
All signs so far seem to point towards the mystery mime artist
being a member of the village community.
I had been intrigued by Andy's tip off that the man had been seen with
a woman and had previously heard that a woman named Donna and her son
had been photographed with the mystery man.
Perhaps Donna could get me a little bit closer to identifying
the mystery man, once and for all.
So Donna, what do you know about the mystery man?
All I know is,
we saw him on carnival day
and then my son spotted him and wanted a photo with him.
We had a pound for the guess obviously,
trying to guess who he is and then we gave him an extra pound
to have the photo taken.
I can't believe you always make me put these stupid costumes on.
I can't breathe, I can't breathe right now.
Who did you guess?
I actually guessed the vicar.
Right, why did you think it was a vicar?
because people don't really see him as much
and he's kind of got similar stature.
Do you have the photo that your child took
- with the mystery man - Yeah.
He does have a bit of a belly.
Yep.
Interesting.
And one other thing was that the mystery man was spotted
talking to a woman.
Do you have any idea who that woman is?
No.
I don't know who she is.
Was it you?
Definitely not me.
Wrong colour hair.
What colour hair does she have?
Dark hair.
Ok, was it long or short?
Old lady style.
Oh, she was older.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Hello ladies.
Sorry to interrupt you guys but I was wondering if any of you knew
who the Woolaston mystery man was?
No. Nobody knows do they?
None of you?
It's still a mystery.
Okay right.
If you're sure then, thank you very much.
Thank you.
We hope you find him!
So do I.
I felt like I'd reached a dead end.
Nobody's story seemed to add up.
The whole village of Woolaston
seemed to be complicit in a cover-up.
I decided to contact the head of the local neighbourhood watch.
I wanted to follow up on the vicar lead and was assured that absolutely
nothing got past the piercing eyes of Gaynor.
So Gaynor, how long have you been part of the neighbourhood watch?
Maybe ten years or so we've been doing the neighbourhood watch.
So being part of the neighbourhood watch
you must have quite good instincts,
as to whether something is dodgy or not?
I've been hearing some reports about the vicar that he hasn't been seen
recently and that maybe it could have been him
- who was in the morph suit. - No it definitely was not Tony.
He was too tall for Tony.
OK.
The mystery man was raising money for the hall.
Do you think that potentially there's someone on the committee
at the hall that could have known more about this
or had something to do with this?
I heard somebody say that the committee thought
it was a marvellous idea and wished they'd thought of it themselves,
- you know? - Well, suspicious.
- Well, you just don't know, do we. - No.
Would you like to solve this mystery?
It would be nice.
Yeah it would be nice.
Well, hopefully I'll be able to find some kind of answer for you.
That'd be nice.
All roads seem to be leading me to Woolaston Hall, the very place
the mystery man was apparently raising money for.
Suspicious.
I arranged to meet Sue and John,
heads of the Woolaston hall committee.
- Hello. - Hi.
You must be Sue and John.
- Absolutely, yeah. - That's correct.
And you are on the committee here at the hall?
That's right.
Yes I'm chairman and Sue is the booking secretary.
Right.
Because I've heard a lot of things about this hall.
In relation to the mystery man,
what was your initial thought?
Actually we all thought it was actually a brilliant idea.
It got to the point we thought, no, this is the perfect scam.
And it's actually very clever.
Can I show you I've got some--
Yeah.
That's the little leaflet that he was handing out to people.
It was the Wednesday and there was the knock at the door,
unexpected knock at the door and it was the retired vicar.
And he just handed this crumpled brown envelope and said
"I've had this put in my box.
I've had a message on the phone saying
it's from the mystery man to you for the hall.
Here it is." And off he went.
So the money was returned, to the hall.
Very convenient.
I did say to him before he ran off, I just said,
"What did he sound like?"
and he said, "He sounded local."
Why would he have chosen the vicar as the person to give the money to?
Because he'd be the most honest person to hand the money over
rather than keep it probably.
Instead of posting it to you guys.
All of this publicity and the money raised is excellent for the hall
- Oh absolutely. - and the area, so maybe...
...it was you guys.
- We haven't raised any money - Nice thinking.
directly from any of the media at all.
It definitely wasn't us, I was dressed as a circus strong man.
If it was us setting it up as a bit of a stunt,
you cannot mess around with children's pocket money.
Right, so it's not you guys.
- No. - No, no, it's definitely not.
OK.
Wow, OK. Well great.
We're back to square one
- of not knowing who it is. - Yes.
Somebody in Woolaston was lying to me.
I knew this wasn't some random criminal from a rival village.
Was it Richard the lovable landlord who looked awfully like the man in
the CCTV footage?
And his ass did look somewhat square.
was it Sohal, the eager newsagent owner
that was all too keen to help the investigation?
How about Andy the carnival organiser who seemed to know
the mystery mime artist movements a little too well?
Donna all too quick to point the finger at the absent vicar.
And if nothing can get past Gaynor of the neighbourhood watch's eye,
then why doesn't she know the identity of our perpetrator?
Or does she?
But what of John and Sue,
the beneficiaries of all the mime artist's thievery?
It was too convenient that the money was immediately returned to them.
I was sure they were involved in orchestration of the scam.
But who was the man behind the mask?
After analyzing all the evidence
I knew I had my answer.
It's Richard.
Obviously.