Four years ago, Paula and Ben Overton were enjoying married life and saving for their first home when a devastating message appeared on Paula's phone. 'It was just a normal day. Ben gave me a kiss on the forehead and went off to work. He messaged me during the day to let me know that he'd booked some annual leave around my birthday, so that we could go to Cyprus,' Paula recalls.
The pair met in college in Horsham in 2010, aged 16 and 17, after being set up by a mutual friend. They stayed together while Paula attended university 150 miles away in Loughborough. They traveled through Europe and Japan together in January 2019 before marrying that November, honeymooning in the Canary Islands the following month.
The couple did 'everything together,' from weekly walks to regular date nights, sharing a love for trying new restaurants. Tech enthusiast Ben even built Paula's computer. But everything changed on February 9, 2022, when Ben, 29, was cycling home from his job as a store manager. He was killed in a head-on collision with a car on a country road in Crawley, Sussex.
Paula, now 32, went into panic mode after receiving an automated text from Ben's Garmin watch, informing her of an accident. 'I would finish work and get home before him, so I went for a bath. I was laid in the bath when my phone went. It was an automated message that said, "Benjamin Overton's Garmin device has detected an incident." Then it gave me the coordinates.'
'I thought it was a really weird message, so I decided to check a tracking app we had for each other called Life 360. Normally it showed a map with a pinpoint where Ben was. I expected that pinpoint to be moving along, but it was just stationary in the middle of the road. Every possible scenario started running through my mind.'
'I thought his phone could have fallen out of his pocket or he could have been in an accident. I got out of the bath, wrote down the coordinates, and called 999. I was just so scared.' She then called her father to come over, and he was with her when the police arrived. 'I had no idea what to think. I was just pacing around the flat waiting to hear, and then they called back 10 minutes later and said, "We can confirm that there has been an accident." I asked, "Is he alive?" And they said, "We don't have that information at the moment."'
'About an hour later, a policeman turned up at my door, and I just knew it wasn't good news. I said, "He's dead, isn't he?" And he just gave me a hug.' The police stayed for a couple of hours to ask questions and provide support leaflets. Ben's body was released a week later. Paula took a month off work and was supported by her family.
The investigation into Ben's death soon stalled. In the months that followed, Paula and Ben's parents received no updates from the police, who wouldn't reveal details to avoid jeopardizing the probe. Paula added: 'It felt really painful, the loss of Ben. You have no idea what's going on; you're just in shock. Every time I spoke to the police, I felt like I was living in a constant cycle of remembering how he died and not all the happy memories we had before that.'
'When they decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute, I felt like I was never going to get justice for him. When the person you love is killed, you expect someone to be held responsible.' The driver claimed Ben was on the wrong side of the road, and with a lack of evidence or witnesses, police could not prove otherwise.
Ben's inquest took place in February this year, four years after his death. After the inquest, Paula pursued a civil case against the driver's insurers, and partial liability was agreed. 'Hearing that they had admitted partial liability allowed me to move on in some ways. I think I had the closure I needed because in my heart, I had gathered what had happened.'
'There was a moment at the inquest when I started crying because the GPS evidence was so convincing that Ben was on the correct side of the road. I felt it was a really harsh decision not to prosecute the driver based on that evidence. I know who was at fault, and I strongly believe it was the driver.'
Their first house should have been their next milestone, but instead Paula bought a flat alone after Ben's death. The high school sweethearts also had plans to foster children. The 32-year-old has since started Tai Chi and volunteers with her local Beaver Scouts to help children learn to love the outdoors as Ben did, keeping his memory alive. She spends every birthday, Christmas, and Valentine's Day with family so she's not alone on the milestones they shared. Paula now keeps a wooden chest with all his favorite belongings, such as CDs, DVDs, clothes, travel souvenirs, and his flute.
Victoria Martin, from Fletchers Solicitors, said: 'The last four years have been unimaginably painful for Paula, who has been constantly searching for answers about exactly what happened to Ben. We hope that our case has provided some of those answers and given her some sense of justice for Ben.'
