A mummified man found aboard a ghost yacht floating in the Pacific Ocean may have died from a heart attack just one week before his body was found.
Manfred Fritz Bajorat was found by two fishermen at the weekend, 40 miles from the coast of the Philippines, on his yacht, Sayo, which was last sighted seven years ago.
Speculation was rife as to his cause of death, presumed to have been long ago, but it has now been suggested that actually died very recently, the Daily Mail reported.
An autopsy revealed that Bajorat suffered a heart attack around a week before his body was found.
The mummified body of German adventurer Manfred Fritz Bajorat was found aboard a yacht which had been drifting around the world
Philippine National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said: "The cause of death is acute myocardial infarction based on the autopsy by (the) regional crime laboratory.
“The German national is estimated to have been dead for more or less seven days.”
The 59-year-old was discovered hunched over a desk near the radio telephone of his 40ft yacht, Sayo.
The cabin was strewn with photo albums, clothes and tins of food and next to the decomposing sailor's body was a pile of family photographs, and a letter addressed to his late wife, Claudia, who died of cancer in 2010 - two years after the pair split up.
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According to the Mirror, the note read: "Thirty years we're been together on the same path. Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live.
"You're gone. May your soul find its peace. Your Manfred."
The mast of Bajorat's yacht was broken and much of the cabin was underwater when it was found.
Police are trying to retrace Bajorat's last voyages and contact people he may have met or spoken to, to pinpoint when he died. The last recorded sighting of the boat was in 2009.
The German embassy in Manila is working with local officials to trace Bajorat's family in Germany.
It is believed he has a daughter called Nina who works as the captain of a freight vessel.