Re-appeal to identify man killed on M1

Officers from Northamptonshire Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit are re-appealing for the public’s help to identify a man killed on the M1 in 2019.

On November 29, a man was struck by several vehicles as he attempted to cross the northbound carriageway of the motorway at junction 18. Sadly, he died at the scene.

Since then, 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, but sadly we have not yet been able to find his family or anyone who knows him.

The man’s inquest was held last week (August 3) in Northampton with a cause of “accidental death” being recorded by the Coroner.

Shortly after his death in 2020, 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 will come forward with information as to his identity. The Force is again circulating this image in the hope that someone who knows him will contact us.

The man is described as in his late teens/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, about 1.5cm and 3cm long, 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. On his person he also had a European plug phone charger, some euros and a Samsung mobile phone with an Orange France sim card in it.

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.