Someone, somewhere holds the vital clue to solving one of the most gruesome murder mysteries in Sussex.

Yet ten years after the unidentified 'Bolney torso' took its secret to the grave, the detective who travelled the world looking for answers is still puzzling over the case.

Superintendent Peter Kennett was one of only eight people to attend a pauper's funeral for the unknown victim a decade ago this month.

He and fellow officers were baffled by the discovery in October 1991 of a man's headless, handless body in woodland.

But they could not have foreseen just how much intrigue and frustration lay ahead of them in trying to identify the victim, let alone his killers.

Mr Kennett travelled thousands of miles between Sussex, Germany and Ireland, probing possible links to an international fraud operation.

Potential leads included a pornographic magazine carrying hints about dismembering bodies, a bullet sent through the post and an anonymous message left on the victim's grave.

They all came to nothing, though at his home in the West Country, now-retired Mr Kennett said: "The case will never be closed - someone must know something."

Warehouseman Colin Oliver, 62, found the blood-spattered torso in undergrowth off Broxmead Lane, Bolney, near Haywards Heath.

The victim, believed to be in his 60s, had had his arms broken and his head removed with an axe or bolt cropper.

One hand was severed six inches below the elbow, the other two inches below, perhaps to cut away a tattoo. The missing head and partial limbs were never found.

A 60-man murder squad began work on Operation A23, an investigation which ultimately cost £150,000.

Officers scoured files on more than 100 missing men but, despite huge publicity, no one came forward with a name.

Officers thought they had achieved a major breakthrough in December 1991. They were contacted by estate agents who became suspicious at the abandonment of a rented property in Copyhold Lane, Cuckfield, a mile and a half from where the body was dumped.

Gunter Josef Knieper, from Dresden, Germany, had begun renting the large house in September with his girlfriend Kornelia Maria Teusel, paying six months' rent of £10,000 in advance.

They suddenly left about October 9, though faxes were still coming in from South America, Spain and Portugal. Police found out that Knieper, who had been using the name Dr Matthias Herrman, was being sought in Germany and Ireland in connection with a suspected business fraud involving loan offers.

Officers who raided the Cuckfield house found a copy of Penthouse containing an article about dismembering bodies with numbers scrawled on the pages.

Knieper, Teusel and three other Germans - Alfred Egar, Jorg Heissler and Matthias Richter - had been working in Ireland before moving to Sussex.

They had rented a castle and mansion, thrown extravagant parties and bought a £100,000 Mercedes for cash.

It was not an entirely carefree lifestyle. While living in Cork, Knieper received death threats and a 9mm bullet accompanied by a picture of his BMW.

In June 1992 Knieper was arrested in Spain and Heissler in Argentina. Egar gave himself up to German police.

Knieper, said to resemble Harold Bishop from TV soap Neighbours, suffered a heart attack which delayed his extradition to Germany.

Mr Kennett and Detective Sergeant Bruce Clowser travelled to Frankfurt to interview Knieper, who admitted the gang intended to start a fraud operation.

But he claimed he only bought the magazine to look up contacts for escort girls and an article about Land Rovers which interested him.

In August that year police admitted there was no evidence to link the Germans with the murder and the trail ran cold.

Mr Clowser and Detective Inspector Derek Hoy returned to Germany in January 1994 to interview a fifth man who had visited the Cuckfield home. All the while, the body remained frozen in a mortuary while awaiting an inquest, due to open in February 1994, then put off until the following June.

West Sussex Coroner Mark Calvert-Lee then decided to allow a further month for any relatives to claim the body before releasing it for burial.

The torso was finally laid to rest in Haywards Heath cemetery on August 2, 1994, after a five-minute service conducted by Alex MacLean, the retired vicar of St Leonard's Church, Turners Hill. He chose as his text Psalm 139, which begins: "O Lord you have searched me out and know me."

The eight mourners represented the police, coroner's office and Mid Sussex District Council, which paid for the funeral.

The coffin's nameplate bears the simple inscription "Unknown male".

There was yet one more twist just days before Christmas 1995, when a note and flowers were left at the grave.

The note read: "For the unknown male, Peter and team, remember our loss."

Since then, silence.

Mr Kennett, who later helped bring Roy Whiting to justice for the 1999 murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, said: "Sussex has had its fair share of murders that have attracted a lot of publicity. But this was certainly one of the strangest and it still remains a mystery."