A man has been arrested after human remains found at a Fife industrial estate were identified.
The remains, found at the Whitehill Industrial Estate in Glenrothes in September last year, have been confirmed as those of 61-year-old Kinglassie local Ean Coutts.
His death is being treated as suspicious and a 30-year-old man was arrested in connection with the death. He was later released pending further inquiries.
Police are now carrying out searches of a number of addresses in the Glenrothes and Kinglassie areas.
Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Houliston, from Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team, said: “We received a significant number of responses following the release of the facial reconstruction and I would like to thank all those who contacted us.
“This has allowed us to identify the man as Ean Coutts and my thoughts are with his family at this time. Ean had lived in Kinglassie for a number of years and was well known in the village.
“We are treating his death as suspicious and officers will be carrying out inquiries in the area as part of our ongoing investigation.
“I am appealing to anyone who knew Ean, who may have had any contact with him from around August, 2019, or who has information that could assist with our investigation to contact us urgently.”
Man could have died two years ago
A member of the public came across the human remains in a disused area of Whitehill Industrial Estate in September last year.
They were believed to have been there for some time, with police launching a major appeal to discover who the person was.
Initially they were unable even to identify the body’s gender. The families of local missing men were initially informed of the discovery.
Last year DCI Houliston said it was “likely he died at least two years ago”, describing the investigation as “complex and highly intricate”.
Officers scoured missing person reports from across the UK as part of their probe.
In November, experts from John Muir University created a facial reconstruction of the dead man’s face.
If you can help call 101, quoting incident number 2692 of Sunday September 27 last year, or email operationrimau@scotland.pnn.police.uk or contact the Major Incident Public Portal (MIPP) website via https://mipp.police.uk/operation/SCOT20S26-PO1
Alternatively, anyone wishing to pass information anonymously can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
