Age: 59
Sex: male
Date: 11 Jan 1943
Place: Liverpool
Jan Von Der Spek was found dead in a dis-used basement at Messrs. Lewis's Stores in Liverpool on Monday 11 January 1943.
He was found with a fractured arm, fractured skull an fractured ribs, and it was thought that he had been dead for some time.
He was found in the sub-basement by the firm's boiler fireman.
He was last seen on the Saturday 9 January 1943 at about 8.55pm leaving a public house in Liverpool under the influence of drink and saying that he was going home.
He had been seen several times by a woman that lived in Hawthorn Road in Bootle who said that he had been with another Dutch seaman. She said that after he left the public house she never saw him again.
He was a Dutch seaman and a ship's greaser and had been staying at a hostel in Liverpool.
An open verdict was returned.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Liverpool Evening Express - Wednesday 13 January 1943
see Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 13 January 1943