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A3 crash skeleton is 'wanted robber'
By Adam Blenford and Chris Millar, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 13.12.02Detectives are attempting to unravel the mystery of reports of a car crash that led them to discover the skeleton of a man killed at the same spot five months ago.
The body was discovered after police received calls from motorists that a car had swerved off the A3 in Surrey with its headlights blazing.
Officers found a wrecked Vauxhall Astra buried in the undergrowth. Inside the car they found the decomposed body.
Today it was revealed that the dead man was Christopher Chandler, 21, from Isleworth, who was being hunted for an alleged robbery. He had been reported missing by his brother, David, after last being seen in London on 16 July.
Surrey Police believe the crash happened in July and that the body had lain undiscovered for five months, yards from the dual carriageway which is used daily by thousands of drivers.
Motorists are now questioning whether what they saw was a ghostly apparition of the original crash on the A3 at Burpham, near Guildford. One officer called the discovery of the five-month old corpse "spine-chilling". Forensic teams cross-referenced the car's registration number and used dental records to confirm Chandler's identity.
Police were called at 7.20pm on Wednesday after motorists phoned to report the "accident". They began foraging in the undergrowth, where they discovered the car nose-down in a ditch, invisible from the road.
A police spokesman said: "We believe the car left the road and ended up in the ditch during July. It doesn't appear that any other vehicles were involved. The car was discovered as a result of a report from members of the public who thought they saw a car's headlights veering off the road."
Today police confirmed that they had identified the man, adding: "The family have been informed and confirmed that they reported him missing in July. We do not yet know why he would be travelling in Surrey."
Reader views (2)
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It says alleged... was he a robber?
- A Reader, Burpham, England
Armed robbery, what information led you to believe in this?!
- David Chandler, UK
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