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 couple first met in college in Horsham in 2010, at ages 16 and 17, after being set up by a mutual friend. They stayed together when Paula moved 150 miles away to university in Loughborough. They traveled across Europe and Japan together in January 2019 before tying the knot that November, at ages 25 and 26, honeymooning in the Canary Islands the following month. The pair did 'everything together,' from weekly walks to regular date nights, sharing a love of trying new restaurants. Tech-enthusiast Ben even built Paula’s computer.
But all that changed on February 9, 2022, when Ben, then 29, began cycling home from his job as a store manager. He was killed in a head-on collision with a car on a small country road in Crawley, Sussex. Paula, now 32, went into panic mode after receiving an automated text message from Ben’s Garmin watch, informing her he had been in an accident.
'I would finish work and get home before him, so I went for a bath. I was lying 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.' She checked a tracking app called Life 360, which showed Ben’s location stationary in the middle of the road. 'Every possible scenario started running through my mind.'
She called 999 and then her father. When police arrived, they confirmed an accident but could not provide information on Ben’s condition. About an hour later, a policeman appeared at her door. 'I said “he’s dead, isn’t he?” And he just gave me a hug.' Ben’s body was released a week later.
The investigation into Ben’s death stalled, with no updates from police for months. Paula said, 'It just 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.'
When police decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute, Paula felt she would never get justice. The driver claimed Ben was on the wrong side of the road, and without witnesses, police could not prove otherwise. Ben’s inquest took place in February 2026, four years after his death. Afterward, 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 that I needed because in my heart, I had gathered what had happened.' At the inquest, GPS evidence convinced Paula that Ben was on the correct side of the road. 'I know who was at fault, and I really strongly believe it was the driver.'
Instead of buying their first home together, Paula bought a flat alone after Ben’s death. The high-school sweethearts had also planned to foster children. Now 32, Paula has taken up Tai Chi and volunteers with her local Beaver Scouts to help children love the outdoors, keeping Ben’s memory alive. She spends birthdays, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day with family. She keeps a wooden chest with Ben’s favorite belongings: 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.'
