Drowned councillor may have been murder victim

A respected councillor found dead at sea may have been murdered, police fear. They are trying to trace a man who was to go out with Peter Solheim, 56, an experienced sailor, the day he drowned off the Lizard Peninsula, in Cornwall. A post mortem showed the retired printer drowned, but had unexplained injuries.

Detectives want to speak to anyone who saw Mr Solheim leaving Mylor harbour, near Falmouth, on Wednesday, 16 June, two days before his body was found six miles away. His 18ft fishing boat, the Izzwizz, was discovered just outside the harbour the next morning. Police do not think the body and the boat could have drifted so far apart if Mr Solheim had fallen overboard. They say he told boatmen he was going with a friend called Charlie to a bigger boat. Mr Solheim often lived with his mother Dorothy in Budok, a village near Falmouth where he was a parish councillor.