DETECTIVES investigating the unexplained death of Lee Balkwell tonight exhumed his body nearly 11 years after he died.

Officers from the Essex and Kent Serious Crime Directorate sealed off the cemetery from 4pm to allow the grave where he was buried in September 2002 to be dug open so a second post mortem can be carried out.

From 6pm cemetery staff dug away ground to expose the coffin before specialist forensic officers took over to minimise the loss of any evidence.

Mr Balkwell, 33, was found dead trapped between the drum and chassis of a cement mixer at Baldwin’s Farm, South Ockendon, at around 1am.

Detectives treated it as a tragic accident and no arrests were made, but in January 2012 an Independent Police Complaints Commission report slammed the original investigation.

The exhumation is part of an ongoing investigation Operation Nereus to establish how he died which began in August 2010.

It was recommended by West Midlands Police following a review of Essex’s investigations which made 91 recommendations.