Man walking with his family finds body of 24-year-old student on Blackpool beach

The man spotted a person lying on the ground behind the tram depot on Squires Gate Lane at around 11.40pm on June 3.

He initially believed it was a drunk person and went over to help, but realised it was a body as he got closer.

The police were called and with the use of fingerprints and photo identification, the body was sadly identified as 24-year-old Sai Ram Guntupalli.

Born in India on July 15, 1999, Mr Guntupalli moved to the UK in December 2020 to study MSc Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire.

In 2021, Mr Guntupalli was kicked off the course due to debt, with little known about his whereabouts afterwards.

At an inquest on October 2, Blackpool and Fylde coroner Alan Wilson heard that Mr Guntupalli had contacted his family about his trip to the resort on May 30. His family said no concerns were raised by the conversation.

At around midday on June 2, Mr Guntupalli was caught on CCTV buying a single train ticket from Manchester Piccadilly Station to Blackpool. He arrived in Blackpool resort at around 2.45pm and was caught on camera walking directly to the beach.

His body was later discovered, with a post-mortem establishing his cause of death as drowning and a head injury.

Det Insp Matthew Frith, who led the police investigation, said there was no evidence to suggest any third party involvement.

The inquest heard that the toxicology report came back negative, and the head injury was likely caused by Mr Guntupalli hitting a rock or the seabed.

The tide was coming back in when Mr Guntupalli arrived at the sea, suggesting he may have been cut off by the tide.

He had also not sent any goodbye messages to his family, but coroner Mr Wilson said he could not speculate how Mr Guntupalli ended up in the sea.

In his conclusion, the coroner said there was not enough evidence to say whether or not Mr Guntupalli had died by suicide.