The heart-breaking mystery after a young man died on ‘paradise’ island

Tresco, to most people, is a dream. Located 28 miles off the coast of Cornwall in the Isles of Scilly, the car-free island boasts crystal clear waters and beautiful beaches. 

Everything there is owned and managed by the Dorrien-Smith family on behalf of the Duchy of Cornwall. The island, just two miles long and one mile wide, has become synonymous with the rich and famous and is a favoured holiday spot for Prince William and Kate Middleton. ‘Tresco is one of those places you want to keep a secret,’ Tatler has previously declared. 

For Tracey Clayton, the island is no dream – it’s synonymous with a nightmare, as it’s the place where her 23–year-old son, Josh, vanished in 2015 and was later found dead. 

‘Josh absolutely loved Tresco, he called it paradise,’ Tracey tells Metro over Zoom from her home in Somerset, her Weimaraner dog sitting at her feet as she talks. ‘He would send me videos and tell me what it was like to see the rich and famous enjoying themselves, or point out unusual birds. 

‘However, the first time I visited Tresco, it was the Tuesday after Josh went missing so it was very stressful. I could never go back there now, there are too many bad memories.’

Josh worked at the Ruin Beach Café, a popular eatery where guests gazed out at white sands as they enjoyed their meals. It was his second season on the island and the hard worker was well respected among staff.  

On a rainy Sunday on September 13, 2015, Josh headed to ‘The Shed’, a green building in an isolated corner of the island, where Tristan Dorrien-Smith, son of wealthy island landlord Robert, was hosting a private party. Josh spent several hours at the venue before leaving around 1.30am ahead of a 7am shift at the café. It was a rainy night with a new moon out, meaning there was no natural light at all on the tree-lined paths which led from the Shed to the staff accommodation.

The next morning, the usually-diligent worker Josh was a no-show for his shift. Messages were frantically sent between his friends on an island group Whatsapp chat called ‘The Raft’ and a search was launched. His bike – with its saddle twisted 180 degrees the wrong way and the pedal caked in mud – was discovered in a hedge on a trail near The Shed. His personal belongings, a portable phone charger and an unopened pack of Lambert and Butler cigarettes, were strewn across the forest floor. Josh’s phone, an iPhone 6, has never been found. 

It was suggested he could have gone into the sea of his own accord – either as a result of suicidal thoughts or an extreme reaction to drugs.

This is something Tracey has never believed. Just hours before her son headed to the Shed, he had called her and expressed excitement at plans to move to Japan with his boyfriend once his season at Tresco was over. In terms of drugs, he was known to occasionally smoke cannabis, but he never did anything stronger to her knowledge.

‘At the beginning they kept saying he was basically a drugged up drunk,’ Tracey, 60, recalls of the early police investigation into her son’s disappearance. ‘It was like the police were trying to belittle how much I knew and loved my son. 

‘Josh knew the island like the back of his hand and had come up with a buddy system to encourage people to walk home with another person to stay safe. He was also very conscious of how the island itself worked, if you were half an hour late [to a shift] they would deduct the whole morning [‘s pay]. It was very draconian like that. Josh in no way would have wanted to be late for work.’

On September 23, after ten desperate days of searches, the young man’s body was found washed up on Teän, an uninhabited island less than a mile from Tresco, by a French yachtsman.

Crushed by the discovery, there were mornings Tracey struggled to get out of bed. However, other days she felt determined to prove that something – or someone – had caused her son’s death and, like a ‘lioness protecting her cubs’, she demanded answers.

An investigation ensued and party-goers were interviewed about Josh’s behaviour on September 13, 2015. They said he seemed ‘capable’ and not overly drunk. Toxicology tests showed he was 2.5 times the legal drink-drive limit at his time of death. 

At an inquest, jurors at Plymouth Coroner’s Court ruled Josh’s death was an accident which could have been caused by a head injury. Their conclusion stated: ‘We believe Josh made his way onto the beach … as a result Josh suffered either dry drowning, traditional drowning or possibly being unable to exit the water.’

Tracey was disappointed, she had hoped for an open verdict which could have justified further investigations. The Clayton family have spent upwards of £67,000 in legal costs and in hiring a private investigator in their pursuit of more information about Josh’s death. They point to flaws in the police investigation after his passing, such as the fact a bloody t-shirt he’d been wearing was destroyed without being examined and the fact one witness – who claimed to have seen Josh have an argument outside the Shed – had five ‘different’ accounts of the same story.

This year, Josh’s brother Ashley ventured back to Tresco to find out more about his younger sibling’s final moments. He was there to take part in a new documentary: ‘The Last Party: Death on Tresco’ which revisits the case.

‘I felt like I was returning to a movie set for a film I’d watched 50 times,’ Ashley tells Metro. ‘It was a strange experience. I first heard about Tresco and the Isles of Scilly when I was about 9 or 10, in When the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo. When Josh got a job on the island I knew where it was, but I had no idea about the running of things until the morning he went missing.’

In Last Party: Death on Tresco, Ashley visits the Shed and points out how difficult the surrounding area is to traverse, even in daylight. If Josh was drunk, his brother says he would have struggled to climb down to the beach front. 

‘People aren’t aware of all the problems with the police investigation,’ Ashley, 42, continues. ‘When we’ve approached some witnesses who were at the party, some say they weren’t even questioned by the police. People aren’t sure what was investigated or not. The narrative that Josh ran off into the bushes and killed himself is not true at all.’

Ashley feels he has ‘carried a burden’ since 2015 which has been eased slightly with the upcoming release of The Last Party: Death on Tresco on December 28. He and his mother Tracey desperately hope someone with information can come forward and provide a missing puzzle piece to the mystery of Josh’s death.

Until that information comes, they do what they can to live a life without the ‘charming and funny’ Josh.

Ashley, who runs AC Digital Technology Limited in Taunton, says: ‘My son Sebastian was a baby when Josh vanished. He’s nine now and looks just like him. It has been difficult going through the grievance process of losing Josh while raising a child. You get to a point where you have to stop thinking about it otherwise you’d go insane. I don’t visit his grave anymore and I don’t have little thoughts that go round and round my head like they used to. But there’s still no closure.

‘It’s almost been like a fight sometimes, an instinct to survive. I say to anyone, if you’ve got that feeling inside you that something is wrong, don’t let anyone shake you from your tree.’

Tracey, who works at The Ship Inn in Taunton, loves it when Josh’s friends pop in and regale her with stories. She recalls a ‘perfect’ holiday to Cuba when he was 15 and boasts of his big heart. Josh also had a strong moral compass and would encourage his family and friends to support causes he cared about, such as refugee charities. 

But fond memories aren’t enough for Tracey, who describes Ashley as her ‘rock’, to fully distract herself from the trauma which comes with not knowing how her son’s final moments unfolded.

‘Before I take my last breath, I would love to know what happened to Josh,’ she sighs. ‘I hope this documentary triggers some emotion so people feel like they can help our family. We are desperate, there are no two ways about it. I grieve because I miss him and I love him, but also because I don’t know what happened to him.’

‘I just want to know the answers. I have all these visions in my head about what could have happened and I want someone to pick the correct vision and tell me what happened. I wish I could put my hand on Josh’s tombstone and know what happened to my beautiful son.’

A spokesperson from Tresco Estate, which is run by the Dorrien-Smith family, told Metro: ‘Our deepest sympathies lie with Josh’s family and friends. His sad death is still felt by all those who knew him in our community. Josh loved Tresco and his passion for the place was evident in his return for consecutive seasons, as is the case with the majority of our seasonal team. The Clayton family will always be welcome on Tresco should they wish to return to remember Josh and celebrate his life.’

When contacted, a spokesman from Devon and Cornwall Police told Metro that the force had ‘apologised for the areas where we have failed to meet the high levels of service we aspired to in this investigation’ and that officers had met with the Clayton family on a number of occasions to report findings.

The spokesman added: ‘There have been a number of thorough investigations in relation to the disappearance and death of Josh Clayton in 2015. All of those investigations have never found proven third party involvement in Josh’s death. While there was learning for Devon & Cornwall Police in the way the Force delivers investigations, we do not believe any of those areas identified would have made a significant difference to the outcome to any of the investigations.

‘We fully understand a family will always have questions when dealing with a death in these circumstances. But extensive investigation and a coroner’s verdict have examined all the evidence available and concluded that no other person can conclusively be linked to Josh Clayton’s death.’

The Last Party: Death on Tresco, available to stream from Saturday 28^th December exclusively on discovery+

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