William Bates

William Bates was found dead in a barrel in the River Clyde.

His body was found by council workers in the oil drum during a routine cleaning and dredging operation at Old Kilpatrick near the Erskine Bridge in West Dunbartonshire at around 9.40am on 26 July 2007.

Police said that he had been subjected to a sustained attack and had received horrific injuries. It was thought that his body could have been in the water for between 3 to14 days. His body was partially decomposed when found.

He was identified after his family identified two distinctive rings that he had been found wearing, one of which had the word DAD spelt out in in small stones.

Police said that they were trying to trace where the oil drum had come from and when it was put in the water. They said that they thought that it had been where it was found two days before it was found by the council workers. They said that they thought that it had been put in the water near to the Erskine Bridge close to where it was found. They said that it could have been put in the water from either the Erskine side of the river or the Bowling side.

William Bates was the prime suspect in the murder of Thomas Cameron who was shot in the car park of the Auchinairn Tavern in Bishopbriggs on 28 June 2007. It was thought that the police had been looking for William Bates who was said to have disappeared shortly after the murder of Thomas Cameron. The police said 'Although not reported missing to police, he had not been seen by his family for some time.'. They said that they were interested in hearing from anyone that could help trace his whereabouts between June 2007 and the time he was found.

William Bates had lived in Possilpark, Glasgow.