British officers investigating the case of a boy’s torso found floating in the River Thames are planning to visit Nigeria.



Adam, the name given to the young African boy whose torso was discovered in the River Thames, London on September 21, 2001 is believed to have been between the ages of four and seven. The murder is believed to be linked to a ritual killing.



Despite the use of forensic science, the Metropolitan Police Service have not caught the killer nearly 10 years after.



The torso was first discovered on the afternoon of Friday, September 21, 2001 as it floated past the Tower of London towards Tower Bridge in Central London. A passer-by crossing the bridge had noticed an orange object in the water, and realising it was a body as it passed under the bridge, alerted the police.



The Metropolitan Police sent its marine search unit to the scene, who recovered the torso further downstream.



The body was found to be the torso of a young black child, the orange being a pair of shorts around the stumps of the legs.



The discovery of the torso shocked police, and prompted massive media coverage in the United Kingdom and around the world.



The police named the body Adam in the absence of any positive identification.



The headless and limbless body of the five or six-year-old child, was found near Tower Bridge in September 2001.



Tests revealed that he was poisoned 48 hours before his death and was paralysed but conscious when he was killed.



A woman was arrested in connection with Adam’s death in July 2002, but she was deported to Nigeria months later.



Forensic tests, involving samples taken from the bones, linked the boy to West Africa and subsequently to Nigeria.



Officers believe Adam’s death was a ritualistic killing and he had been poisoned with an extract from the carabar bean.



Investigators also met with the former South African President, Nelson Mandela over the case.



He subsequently made a public appeal for information about the boy in April 2002.



A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that the investigation team have been preparing to visit Lagos, Nigeria, in connection with the Adam inquiry.



“They will be travelling in the near future.”







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