The death of DJ Derek is now officially a mystery

In the end there were very few answers. Just over a year after he went missing, an inquest into DJ Derek’s death shed little light on how he came to be on a patch of wasteland where his body was found in March this year.

Post-mortem examinations and an exhaustive police investigation including trawling through hours of CCTV and searches of his home and medical records thew up scarce evidence for the coroner to draw a line under the now officially mysterious death of 74-year-old Derek Serpell-Morris.

“I can’t say that his death was of natural causes, although I suspect it might have been,” concluded assistant coroner Peter Harrowing as he recorded a “narrative” verdict.

“There was no evidence of violence or any third party involved in his body coming to be where it was.

“There was no evidence that he intended to take his own life. Police inquiries have left a lot of unanswered questions, and understandably so.”

Derek’s body was found by a dog walker on March 11 this year at small clearing on a patch of wasteland near to Cribbs Causeway.

The spot was “a few hundred yards” from the route of the last bus Derek was known to take, the number 78, on July 11.

The last official sighting of the former accountant, who was known throughout the UK as the most unlikely patois-speaking white reggae DJ, was in the early hours of that same morning leaving The Criterion pub on Ashley Road where he regularly drank.

Earlier that evening the real ale aficionado had been drinking in the Commercial Rooms, a Wetherspoons pub on Corn Street where he was also a regular.

Friends said he had spoken of his retirement from DJ-ing and his plans to continue visiting every new Wetherspoons pub in the country via his favoured National Express buses.

Despite a nationwide campaign launched by his great-niece, Jennifer Griffiths, few clues emerged of his whereabouts.

Police treated Derek as a missing person and quickly dismissed theories of foul play. News of the investigation and campaign almost completely dried up by the time Derek’s body was finally found by dog walker David Wright.

In a statement to Flax Bourton Coroner’s Court, Wright said he came across at 3pm “what can only bee described as a badly decomposed body.”

After a post-mortem examination, a pathologist concluded: “Due to the condition of the body it was not possible to ascertain the cause of death.”

He added: “I can’t exclude injury. He possibly died of natural causes. It’s also possible he died of hypothermia or an overdose.”

Detective Constable Carol Doxsey was questioned by the coroner about the police investigation. She said there was nothing left at the scene to suggest there was an assault or that Derek’s body had been taken there after his death by a third party.

She said police found nothing in Derek’s black backpack near his body to suggest how he had died.

Asked if she would describe the area he was found as a “den”, she replied: “Maybe a makeshift one, not a camping area; but there were a few things around the place, maybe somewhere he decided to lie down.”

She said searches of his basement flat on Albert Place, Montpelier, found no evidence of a break-in and no suicide notes.

Doxsey also dismissed the theory that Derek had any enemies, adding: “Of all the many people we spoke to, everybody had good things to say about him.”

Pressed on the theory of suicide again, she replied: “There were no notes and his medical records show nothing to suggest that.” Derek last saw his GP “many years ago”, she added.

She said the police investigation was now officially closed, before concluding: “We are unable to say how he died and why he was in that location.”

Summing up the hearing and the life of Derek, the coroner said he believed he was a “very private man” away from his music – evidenced perhaps by the three weeks it took anybody to raise the alarm he had gone missing.

He concluded: “DJ Derek was clearly a very big character. I’m sure his love and passion for music touched the lives of all who knew him.

“DJ Derek forms a very important part of the history of music at home in the country and abroad.”

Read more: DJ Derek obituary