in 1980, todmorden found itself at the centre of a celebrated murder enquiry. on 11 june that year police were called to j.w. parker's coal yard in todmorden after the discovery of a body, subsequently identified as 56-year-old zigmund adamski from tingley, near wakefield. the former coal miner had not been seen since setting out on a local shopping trip five days earlier. although still wearing a suit, his shirt, watch and wallet were missing. a post mortem established that he died of a heart attack earlier that day, and discovered burns on his neck, shoulders and back of his head. these appeared to have been dressed by a green ointment, which toxicology tests were unable to identify. adamski's case has never been solved, no suspect was ever arrested and in a television documentary the coroner, james turnbull, described it as "one of the most puzzling cases i've come across in 25 years". among the explanations to gain currency was that adamski was the victim of extraterrestrial abduction, following comments by police officer alan godfrey about what he saw on 29 november 1980, described in jenny randles' 1983 book "the pennine ufo mystery". after intense media interest, the todmorden police force were forbidden from talking further to the press about the case.