Mystery over body in car outside Gatwick Airport as 'friends' ask locals questions

Locals who live close to an industrial estate where a man was discovered dead inside a car say his friends have been seeking answers from the community.

rushed to Northgate, Crawley, after a recovery driver came to collect the BMW and spotted a corpse in the backseat on June 6. His death allegedly prompted his friends to visit the scene and ask locals questions.

Burger van worker Ibrahim Italil Cete said he spoke to a group of people claiming to be his friends. He says he had attempted to alert the authorities several times before the man was eventually found on Whittle Way.

READ MORE:

He was allegedly told that the man's uncle was on his way back from Norway to try and confirm his identity. “Apparently he had mental health issues and would go off-grid quite often," Ibrahim told .

The food worker said he reported the vehicle as abandoned on April 30 and had told motorway officers that the vehicle looked "suspicious", but they failed to act on it.

Speaking about the moment the recovery worker had found his body, Ibrahim said: “The person who found him came here first and told us to call the police. He was shaking. He said 'man, there is a dead body in there.'”

Another local, who lives just two minutes away from the scene, explained that the road was popular with holidaymakers, due to it being situated so close to Gatwick Airport.

Tia Green, 25, said the smell coming from the car was "horrendous". She added: "I’d say he was there for seven months. There was so much dust on the car, even on the tyres. It had been there so long.”

It comes after residents and claimed that the man was living in the car. One person said the recovery worker "saw a man on the back seats, with a blanket over the front two seats to build a ‘barrier’ across as he was lying on the backseat - most likely was sleeping in the back".

Another person added: "A recovery driver came this morning and smashed the back window to take the motor. As he did that he noticed the dead body on the back seats."

A spokesman for said his death isn't being treated as suspicious. They said: “Police were called to Whittle Way in Northgate, Crawly, at around 10.30am on Friday, 6 June, to reports of a body found in a vehicle. Enquiries are ongoing to identify the individual and establish the full circumstances of the situation.”