THE remains of an unknown man at the centre of a four-month identity hunt spanning two continents have finally been buried in an unmarked grave, in a service attended by just four gardaí.

The man, who used the name Peter Bergman to check into a Sligo hotel last June, was later discovered drowned at a beach on Rosses Point. He was found to have been suffering from cancer.

The man's death followed his deliberate attempt to remove all clues to his real identity. In the days leading up to his suspected suicide, the unidentified man had walked around Sligo town systematically disposing of his clothing.

He used a fake Austrian address and paid cash in advance at the Sligo City Hotel; he carefully sliced the tags off his clothes and he kept his conversations with locals short.

Detective Inspector John O'Reilly, who led the investigation across Europe and the US, said, "It appears that he spoke with very good but broken English. The perception was that it was a German, Austrian or Swiss-type accent.

"It's not a common thing to happen by a long shot. Certainly from what we gathered as we went along, this guy just wanted to rest in his own peace," he added.

Before his death the man posted a number of letters with airmail stamps, but their recipients remain as much a mystery as their sender.

On 16 June last, the man's remains were found on the Sligo beach by a passerby.

He was wearing swimming trunks and his clothes were discovered in a neatly folded pile on the sand. Gardaí found €30 in notes and some change as well as medication.

The inquiry into his identity involved an appeal through the print media in the US and Europe as well as a cross-check of DNA, fingerprint and photographic databases.

Gardaí attempted to trace the batch number on the man's medication to a chemist but this proved impossible. He also had tissues that were made in Germany and they tried to find any supermarkets in Ireland that might sell them but there were none.

"It would appear that he travelled out to Rosses Point on a few occasions," said Sligo mayor Jim McGarry.

"We know that he was a sick man and he must have been a very lonely and isolated man."

However, despite their lengthy investigation, with no definitive leads to go on, the authorities were eventually forced to bury the man in Sligo, an unknown distance from his home country.