A man has been arrested after remains found on an industrial estate more than three months ago were identified.
The remains were found inside a unit on the estate in Whitehill Road, Glenrothes, on Sunday September 27 last year.
Police released a facial reconstruction created by experts at Liverpool John Moores University as part of their efforts to identify them.
READ MORE: Human remains found in industrial estate as police launch investigation
They have now been identified as those of Ean Coutts, 61, who lived in the village of Kinglassie in Fife.
Police said his death is being treated as suspicious and appealed for information.
A 30-year-old man was arrested in connection with the death on Tuesday and released pending further inquiries.
Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Houliston, from Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team, said: “We received a significant number of responses following release of the facial reconstruction and I would like to thank all those who contacted us.
“This has allowed us to identify the man as Ean Coutts and my thoughts are with his family at this time. Ean had lived in Kinglassie for a number of years and was well known in the village.
“We are treating his death as suspicious and officers will be carrying out inquiries in and around the Kinglassie and Glenrothes areas as part of our ongoing investigation.
“It Is vital that we establish the events leading up to his death to provide answers to his family.
READ MORE: Facial reconstruction: Police issue image in bid to identify mystery remains
“I am appealing to anyone who knew Ean, who may have had any contact with him from around August 2019, and anyone who has information that could assist with our investigation to contact us as a matter of urgency.”
Investigations into what happened to Mr Coutts are continuing, including searches of a number of addresses in the Glenrothes and Kinglassie areas.
Police said his family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident number 2692 of Sunday September 27 2020, email operationrimau@scotland.pnn.police.uk, or make contact through the Major Incident Public Portal (MIPP) website via https://mipp.police.uk/operation/SCOT20S26-PO1.
If someone wants to pass on information anonymously they can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here