Body of man murdered in case of mistaken identity lay undiscovered for weeks despite anonymous tip-offs to police
Michael Wheeler, 37, was brutally attacked and killed by Mark Roberts and David Garland on August 24 last year after believing he was a convicted paedophile.
He was brutally attacked at Roberts's flat in Yeovil in the early hours of the morning , suffering multiple injuries, including 11 skull and facial fractures.
Mr Wheeler's body was later found in a derelict caravan on farmland in Yarlington on September 25 last year.
On the day of his death, Avon and Somerset Police had received an anonymous call to say someone had been heard shouting 'call the police' and sent officers to a flat in Yeovil where a man refused to let them in.
Three weeks later, the force received another anonymous tip-off to say there was a dead body at the same address.
The force carried out further inquiries but were unable to locate a body at the time.
Details of the two tip offs were included in a report published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on deaths following police contact.
The IOPC report said: 'Police received an anonymous call to a residential address reporting that a man had been heard shouting 'call the police'.
'An officer attended and spoke to the man outside of the property who said he lived at the address but refused to allow the officer inside.
'Just over three weeks later, police received anonymous information about a dead body in the same address that the officer had attended.
'The information suggested the man had been murdered two or three weeks before. Inquiries were carried out, but police were unable to locate a body.
'Several arrests were made, including the man who lived at the address that was initially visited by the police officer. A short time after the arrests a body of a man was found.'
The IOPC investigated the decisions made by the sergeant who responded to the initial call.
A spokesperson said: 'We began an independent investigation into the decisions and actions of a police sergeant in relation to his attendance at a residential address on August 24 2024.
'It followed a mandatory conduct referral from Avon and Somerset received on September 20. Our investigation concluded in March and we are in the process of informing all parties of the outcome.'
Mr Wheeler, 37, had been friends with all five but his relationship with Roberts, to whom he owed £100, went downhill when the others saw an article about a man - also named Michael Wheeler - who was jailed in 2003 after admitting grooming and sexually abusing two 13-year-old girls.
They were not the same person and during the trial, prosecuting counsel, David Elias, KC, made it clear the victim had no convictions for child sexual offences.
One of the last sightings of him was on CCTV at a petrol station just a few hours before his death.
Mr Wheeler's mother was suffering from a terminal illness at the time of her son's disappearance and is said to have spent her last months under the shadow of his untimely death, before dying before the case came to court.
The victim leaves a young daughter, ex-wife and sister.
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