Gardaí have identified the body of man found dead in Connemara, Co Galway almost eight years ago. The remains of Arno Schmitz were found on the shores of Lough Inagh on December 8th 2006.

He was found wearing a yellow hooded jacket with a holdall bag and had no evidence of trauma or injury.

Among the items found beside the body were a Tropicana Pink Grapefruit flavour fruit juice carton with a best before date of 24/12/2005, and a glasses case with the name "Mückenheim-Optik".

This had an address at Neumünster, Germany - but enquiries conducted there did not reveal any information.

A post mortem was carried out and the services of a forensic anthropologist were sought.

The man was believed to be aged between 44 and 66 years, 5-foot -7.5 inches and of stocky build.

As time passed with no identification, a facial reconstruction image was released to the media in 2009.

In December 2013, a further review was undertaken by gardaí and this resulted in more than 60 lines of enquiry.

Juice drink was key

Further emphasis was brought to bear on the items found with the remains.

It was established that the fruit juice drink had been produced on or about the 03/11/2005 - with a shelf life of approximately 52 days.

Giving a week from manufacture to distribution, the product could only have been on sale in retail outlets sometime after the 10/11/2005.

Everything so far led gardaí to believe that this person died sometime in late 2005. It was also the belief that he may have had a connection to Germany and, in particular, to the Neumünster area.

Lines of communication were continued with Interpol and liaison was made with the German embassy.

After an appeal in Germany, Mr Schmitz's brother made contact with the authorities to say Arno emigrated to Ireland in 2005 and he had not had contact with him since.

Bernd's Schmitz last contact with his brother was before Christmas 2005 by phone. He had not reported him as a missing person.

Arno Schmitz was then identified using dental records, after charts provided from German authorites to the gardaí matched charting done by a forensic dentist in Kerry.

"With little evidence to work with and no missing persons report this was always going to a difficult case to solve," said Chief Superintendent Thomas Curley.

"But thanks to the determination of the local garda investigators and the co-operation of agencies and individual experts we have helped ensure that Mr Schmitz's family have some closure on this tragic matter," he added.