Courtesy DevonLive

By the side of his naked body was a glass of Coke which it later turned out contained cyanide

Twenty-five years ago Devon was gripped by the story of a mysterious death that was likened to an Agatha Christie novel, and remains unsolved to this day. A man, calling himself Mr Patel, was found dead in a room at the Grand Hotel on Torquay seafront, a place the Torquay-born thriller writer knew well.

By the side of his naked body was a glass of Coke which it later turned out contained the poison cyanide. He had booked in under what turned out to be a false name, and had given a false address in London as his home.

The man arrived at the landmark hotel in September 1997, after three days in a more modest establishment nearby, called Lee’s Hotel and Cantonese Restaurant. The mystery guest, in his mid-thirties, ordered room service and ate a meal of roast lamb, washed down with a glass of Frascati, an Italian white wine. His body was found by a chambermaid the next day, the 24th.

His black suit, white shirt and multi-coloured tie were neatly folded on his bed, and on the bedside table was £94.12 in cash and an empty wine glass. But when the authorities were called in and tried to identify him, the lines of inquiry carried out the investigators found a series of dead ends.

It was only due to a coincidence that a tantalising clue emerged. Two marks were seen on his shoulder, a sign that he was a member of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group in Sri Lanka, an island state in the Indian Ocean. But why he ended up in the Devon seafront hotel where Agatha Christie spent her wedding night, and why he apparently ended his life there, has never been established.

When the body was removed to the mortuary, coroner’s officer Robin Little spotted the marks on Mr Patel’s shoulder. The then South Devon coroner Hamish Turner later recalled: We spent a year trying to find out who this chap was. We even photographed his face and sent that photo around the country hoping someone would recognise him, but had no luck. It was perhaps a grim thing to do – but we had nothing else to go on because he carried nothing to identify himself.”

It was a lucky coincidence that the local forensic pathologist, Dr Guyan Fernando, is from Sri Lanka. He was told of these marks in a chance conversation with Mr Little and was able to tell us that the dead man must be from his country because these marks were the tribal sign of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group in Sri Lanka.”

The cyanide was another clue that the dead man was a Tamil Tiger because, Mr Fernando said, they always carried a cyanide pill with them in case they were caught. Then there was a courteous note, penned by Mr Patel. It read: I am very sorry for what I have done here but this is the place I had to carry out the deed. To the chef, the food was magnificent – fit for the gods – for a final meal. Thank you.”

Mr Turner said: I could only remark at the inquest that his reference to this place might be because he had read some Agatha Christie story and knew of her connection with the Grand Hotel.”

The dead man’s clothing was examined for clues to his identity but there were no laundry tags or marks that might help. He had a rather nice Parker pen which might have suggested he was an educated man,” Mr Turner added, but despite months of investigation by the police we never discovered his real name or what he was doing in Torquay.”

It was, he added, the most baffling case of his career, and he could only now surmise that the dead man must have been running away from someone he feared, which was why he chose to end his life when he did. As to exactly why he died, and whether he was a devotee of Agatha Christie, I suppose we will never know.”