A FIFTH family has contacted detectives trying to solve one of North Yorkshire’s most famous mysteries.

Police revealed the new lead today, as they prepare to begin digging up the woman’s remains in a new attempt to finally identify her.

Officers have been granted permission to exhume the woman’s body at Malton Cemetery in order to extract DNA from her teeth and femur, and the exhumation is due to begin at midnight tonight.

The “nude in the nettles” has baffled police since a woman’s corpse was found in August 1981, between Scawton and Rievaulx near Sutton Bank. Detectives believe the body had been there for two years, but were unable to identify it, despite a huge investigation that included British policing’s first ever wax facial reconstruction.

The Press revealed last year that police were reopening the investigation, 30 years after the body was found. Since then, four families had contacted detectives saying they believed the woman could be a relative, and a fifth came forward earlier today.

Speaking at the cemetery this afternoon, Detective Superintendent Lewis Raw said: “Despite all the work done, we have never been able to bring this case to a closure. Somewhere out there, there is a family mising a loved one. It is the force’s primary aim to bring that family some closure after all this time.”

He said significant advances in DNA technology had given the force fresh hope. The extracted sample will be compared to those of the five families that have come forward, and also checked against the national DNA database. It will take four weeks for results to emerge.

Although the case is officially recorded as an “unexplained incident”, officers have openly said they believe the woman was murdered.

Det Supt Raw said: “This is a naked woman who was found in a nettle bush. There were no pieces of clothing, jewellery or identifying features. I think there must have been some suspicious circumstances.”

Police officers, a Home Office pathologist, a forensic archaeologist and crime scene investigators will be involved in the ceremony tonight. A barrier and forensic tent have been erected and a graveside blessing will be carried out by Force Chaplain, Reverend Simon Rudkin. Protective covers have been placed over other nearby gravestones.

The work, which required permission from Her Majesty's Coroner, Michael Oakley, will be carried out manually and take about seven hours, allowing forensic work to begin tomorrow morning.

The body is expected to be reinterred on Wednesday morning, allowing the cemetery to reopen in the afternoon. A wreath will be placed at the grave by officers from North Yorkshire Police.

The Sutton Bank mystery began on August 28, 1981, when police received an early-morning anonymous call, giving the precise location of the body. The caller said he could not give his name for security reasons and became an immediate suspect, but was never traced.

Det Supt Law last night appealed again for that caller to contact police, if he is still alive.

A yoghurt top beneath the body suggested it had been there for about two years and police said its the position suggested someone was in a hurry to dump the woman.

She is thought to have been about 5ft 2in tall and aged 35 to 40. Investigations showed she was a mother who had two or possible three children. She was of slender build and wore her dark brown hair in a pageboy style. Her toenails were painted a pale pink and she would have worn a size four shoe. Staining on her teeth suggested she was a heavy smoker who drank heavily and did not pay much attention to herself.