POLICE have contacted the family of missing David Bolton after human remains were found next to the M27 near to his Swanwick home.

Officers say that until the results of a post mortem are known they cannot rule out the possibility the badly decomposed body is that of the father-of-two.

The 61-year-old vanished from his flat in Swanwick Lane on March 11.

Friends said he had been feeling down after going on sick leave from his cleaning job at Warsash Maritime Centre.

Apart from two possible sightings in the New Forest a couple of weeks after his disappearance police had drawn a blank over his whereabouts.

They put up hundreds of missing person posters in Swanwick, Sarisbury Green, Park Gate and Locks Heath but failed to get any new leads as to Mr Bolton's whereabouts.

Officers initially thought he may have gone to the Isle of Wight because of his interest in boats or visited relatives in Hemel Hempstead.

Inspector Steve Havis of Park Gate police said: "We cannot rule out that it is Mr Bolton until we have found out the results of the post mortem."

The human remains were discovered on Wednesday and taken to the mortuary at Haslar Hospital where a post mortem was yesterday carried out.

It appears the body had lain next to the westbound carriageway of the M27 near to the Hamble bridge between junctions eight and nine for some weeks.

A police spokesman said they would release a name once the body had been formally identified.

She added that there were no obvious suspicious circumstances.