Crash investigators’ fresh appeal to name man killed running across Northamptonshire M1 in 2019

Crash investigators have made a fresh appeal in a bid to identify a suspected illegal immigrant who was killed crossing the M1 in Northamptonshire in 2019.

Officers have explored multiple lines of enquiry worldwide after the ‘John Doe’ dashed across the southbound carriageway but was then hit by several vehicles travelling at 70mph on the northbound side.

Earlier this month, one driver told an inquest of the harrowing moment the pedestrian smashed into her car.

She said: “My boyfriend and I were singing to music and he was on his phone.

“I just went past junction 18 of the motorway when I saw a person move into the driver’s side of my car. Before I could do anything the person hit my car.

“The impact was a loud bang. I slammed on my brakes. I screamed and was hysterical. I was shouting that I had hit someone.”

Coronor Anne Pember ruled the death accidental, but Northamptonshire Police has not given up hope of identifying the victim.

Police believe the man, thought to be in his late teens or early 20s, may have stowed away on a lorry to gain entry to the UK.

But their only clues so far to where he came from have been a French sim card and some euros.

A spokesman for the force’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: “Officers have pursued a number of lines of enquiry in a bid to identify him, including media appeals and circulating his DNA and fingerprints internationally.

“Sadly we have not yet been able to find his family or anyone who knows him.

“Shortly after his death, an expert at Liverpool John Moores University produced an e-fit to show what the man would have looked like in the hope that someone would come forward with information as to his identity.

“We are again circulating this image in the hope that someone who knows him will contact us.”

The man is described as in his late teens or early 20s, about 5ft 1in with black hair and brown eyes. He had a wispy growth of facial hair and what looked to be an old piercing in his left ear lobe. He also had two faint linear scars on the back of his lower left arm.

At the time of his death he was wearing a black, long-sleeved top marked with the words 'The Urban Club, Bronx', a black and grey jumper and black jeans. He also had a European plug phone charger, some euros and a Samsung mobile phone with an Orange France sim card in it.

A spokesman added: “It is suspected that he may have entered the country illegally, disembarked from a lorry and, for unknown reasons, crossed the southbound carriageway of the M1, making it successfully across all three lanes, before being struck in an attempt to then cross the northbound carriageway.”

Anyone who recognises the man or knows who he might be is asked to contact Northamptonshire Police on 101.

Alternatively, those with information can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.