The partner of a car crash victim whose body lay undiscovered in a 10ft-deep ditch for 33 hours told today how the police said he probably wandered off in shock from the scene.

Young mum Kayleigh Brown, 21, of The Street, Little Totham, and boyfriend Graham Smith, 24, of Hillcrest Road, Sudbury, were both catapulted from their Ford Orion in the crash on the A134 at Great Whelnetham, south of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, at 1am on Saturday.

Miss Brown said she told police that car driver Graham was lying close to the scene although they said he had probably wandered off in shock.

She said she returned to the crash site in daylight and begged police to search harder, but they kept suggesting he had left the site.

"He would never have left me," said Kayleigh.

Graham's body was eventually found face down in ditchwater at 10.30am on Sunday.

Kayleigh said Graham - "a popular man with a great sense of humour" - had been planning to set up home with her and her 19-month-old son Joshua in Little Totham.

She treasures the brand-new trainers Graham was wearing at the time of the accident, also photographs of herself and Joshua from his Filofax and the football he gave Joshua on Friday. The trainers were retrieved at the scene and given to her.

"He thought the world of Josh. When he phoned up he always said 'give Josh a kiss from me.' "

Kayleigh, still scratched and bruised today, said she could not remember why she was travelling with Graham and a friend, Michael Martin, in the car.

She is convinced headlights came towards them just before the Orion spun off the road.

People living nearby said two young men in a blue Sierra were later seen inspecting the accident site.

"I want the people in the Sierra to come forward and say if they have any information," said Kayleigh.

Suffolk Police said today: "Our officers are very concerned they might have been able to do something to help this man, if he had been found earlier."

They are anxious to trace the events leading up to the tragedy and believed the car could have swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle.

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