POLICE have finally managed to put a name to human remains found deep in a forest earlier this year.

They have identified the skeletal remains as those of David Eric Sykes, a 46-year-old unemployed forester of no fixed address.

An inquest into the circumstances of his lonely death has been opened and adjourned until a later date.

The body was found in February by a man out walking in Langdale Forest, on the North York Moors near Scarborough.

A tent and camping equipment were found nearby and the body is thought to have lain undiscovered for several years.

After the body was found forensic experts went through the area for clues to the man's identity.

Police combed through the details of hundreds of missing people after a woman told them how she had spoken to a man in the early 1990s while walking in the forest. He had told her he was planning to make his home there with his dog.

Deputy coroner for North Yorkshire East, John Broadbridge, said Mr Sykes' funeral will be held tomorrow.

He said that two brothers of the dead man had been traced, one living in Yorkshire, and the other in London.