Police appeal after mystery death of ‘wonderful man’
Mystery surrounds the death of a pensioner who was found with catastrophic injuries at the roadside by a passer-by.
Derek Gane was discovered in Station Road, Aylesford, with multiple broken bones at around 10.30am on Monday, August 14, before being taken to hospital.
A police investigation has now been launched to try to work out exactly what happened.
The 69-year-old was transferred from Maidstone to King’s College Hospital in London, where his life support was later switched off by his wife Anita.
Mrs Gane, of London Road, paid tribute to her husband, who she had been with for 20 years before asking for his hand in marriage last year – a leap year.
She said: “He was a wonderful man. He was a very good person and if he could help anybody, then he would. He was a very kind man and he looked after me.
“He was a hard worker and he had worked on the railways for 30 years as a civil engineer. We got married, just the two of us, in Gretna Green on June 29, 2016. I knelt down on the foot stall and I asked him and he said yes.”
Tragically, just over six weeks since marking their first anniversary, Mrs Gane is mourning his death.
Mr Gane had been walking to Papa’s fish and chip shop for breakfast at around 10am when he suffered his injuries.
She said: “At about 11.50am I said something wasn’t right. Kent Police then knocked on the door and said he was in hospital and a member of the public had found him and rung for an ambulance.
“On the Thursday he was on life support and the hospital rang me when he was taken to the Jack Steinberg Critical Care Unit.
“They put him on a ventilator and I managed to speak to him before he was put on life support.
“On the Thursday night they said they couldn’t do anything else for him. He wouldn’t have wanted to be on life support, so that was when I decided to turn it off.”
Mrs Gane had only lost her mother Mary Taylor to cancer three months before her husband’s death.
She is now hopeful the police investigation will help identify the cause of the injuries Mr Gane suffered.
A spokesman for Kent Police said a CCTV picture of Mr Gane has been released, in a bid to jog people’s memories. It shows him wearing a grey T-shirt, blue jeans and brown boots, shortly before he was injured.
The spokesman said: “Officers would like to hear from anyone who saw Mr Gane on the morning of Monday 14 August walking along Teapot Lane, over the M20 footbridge or in Station Road where he was found injured.”
Anyone with information that might help is asked to call the appeal line on 01622 604100 quoting reference 14-0577.