Cork inquest hears missing homeless man identified by DNA in 'sad and lonely story'

Peter John Oliver went missing on a stormy December evening and was identified months later 

Coroner Frank O'Connell (pictured) said it was "miraculous" that Mr Oliver's body had been found at all. File picture: Denis Minihane

Peter John Oliver, who lived in a shack just outside Skibbereen, took his bag of coal, another bag of clothes, and some food, and left a pub in town to head home on a dark and stormy December evening. He never made it back.

Missing for three months, his body was only found the following March after a man tidying his garden on the banks of the River Ilen some 2kms outside the West Cork town spotted two identical boots sticking up out of the ground.