Bryan Woolis: Yorkshire police officer identifies victim of fatal crash more than 10 years on

Inspector Nik Dodsworth, from South Yorkshire Police, investigated the incident in his spare time after reading about the mystery man in a newspaper article by our sister paper The Sheffield Star.

It related to a fatal crash involving a man thought to be called Bryan Wallace in Walthamstow, Northeast London on 22 January 2015, when he was hit by a Mercedes C-Class.

Police officers from London who initially investigated the collision were unable to identify the victim or locate his family. However, they had heard from associates he may have been called Brian Wallace, and had relatives in Sheffield.

The driver of the Mercedes was sent to court and given a suspended sentence, but the case could not be officially closed as the victim had not been formally identified.

In 2024 another appeal was put out by charity Locate International, and it was this appeal which led Insp Dodsworth to taking up the investigation in his spare time.

He said: “I was drawn to the case because I saw that The Sheffield Star had two good quality photos of the victim, but despite this, he had still not been identified. I found that quite sad.

“When I first joined the police, this was the kind of job I envisaged myself doing every day, but of course the majority of the time it’s nothing like this at all.

“As it was believed that Bryan had links to Sheffield, and with Locate International being primarily London based, I offered to help out.

“I had done about five hours of research, primarily internet-based and with some visits to negate possible identities that had been suggested on forums.

“The Met were really helpful, and when I got the case notes from them it became quite straightforward.”

His detectiive work and help from a partial DNA match, Insp Dodsworth was able to confirm that Brian Wallace was actually called Bryan Alwyn Woolis. A deeper dive into his family history found an obituary for an Alwyn Woolis - his father - who had died in Derbyshire in 2016.

The obituary listed three children, including Bryan. Insp Dodsworth tracked down the other two siblings and were able to fill in many of the blanks surrounding his life and death.

He said: “Bryan’s sister moved to London in the 1990s, Bryan followed a few years later and he would visit her from time to time. However, Bryan lived a quiet life by choice, and after his sister moved back up north in the 2000s to look after their father, they didn’t see each other again.

“Because the family did not stay in regular contact, it was not considered unusual not to hear from Bryan for long periods of time, and so he was not listed as a missing person.

“When I got in touch with Bryan’s sister, I was able to tell her what had happened to her brother. Despite not being close, she experienced grief at Bryan’s death. She had heard a rumour that Bryan had died of natural causes but could not find anything to corroborate this.

“It was a sad thing, to have a man die and be buried without being correctly identified, but it’s not as uncommon as you might expect.

“What actually makes this case unusual is that it has now been resolved. I got a sense of satisfaction from getting to the bottom of this mystery, putting a name to the victim of a tragic road traffic collision from 10 years ago, and being able to help Bryan’s family get closure.”

Locate International are working to secure a new headstone for Bryan’s grave at Manor Park Cemetery in London, something Insp Dodsworth says ‘has to happen’.