the Todmorden copper + the body on the coal — am I joining dots that aren't there?

Going to lay this out because it's been rattling round my head. PC Alan Godfrey, Todmorden, West Yorks. 28 Nov 1980, ~5am, out looking for stray cows on Burnley Road, sees what he first clocks as a double-decker bus stopped in the road. Gets closer, it's a diamond/spinning thing hovering, road's wet……