Wife of man run down by own car ‘screamed his name’ as he lay dying
THE wife of an ex-Royal Navy officer screamed his name and desperately called for help as he lay dying in the street after being run over by car thieves, a neighbour said.
Mike Samwell, 35, had confronted intruders after the break-in as he slept, with his accountant wife, Jessica, at their £500,000 home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.
He had heard a loud bang and gone downstairs and outside to the parking space at the back of the house. He was then run down by thieves who had stolen his Audi S3 sports car. His distraught wife screamed for help as neighbours dashed to the scene and called for an ambulance. Mr Samwell died just over an hour later in hospital.
His neighbour, who lives in the basement flat next door, said he was woken at about 3am on Sunday morning after hearing the Audi hit railings, then got up to investigate.
He said: “Then I heard his wife screaming. She was screaming for help and his name, which was ... I was still kind of half asleep, which is what woke me up.”
The neighbour, who did not wish to be named, added: “By the time I got out there, there were other neighbours out there.
“There was people already attending, I came to the end of the drive to wait to wave the ambulance in.
“I think one of the neighbours was an off-duty policewoman so she took charge of the situation and I didn’t really see him, he was groaning, his wife was obviously distraught.
“They took him away in the ambulance, it turned up pretty quickly.
“I didn’t know him, I heard it all unfold and saw him taken away in the ambulance. I knew it was serious but it wasn’t until midday yesterday that I found out the worst.
“Up until that point I just assumed he had suffered some serious injuries but he would be home soon.
“But then when you hear that, it suddenly changes the situation. Obviously it’s become a murder then, it’s not just theft.”
The neighbour added: “You never really hear of murders around here. There is a very high burglary rate around here. The postcode around here has quite a high insurance premium, because of theft.”
Earlier yesterday, police arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of murder. The Audi car was recovered by police badly damaged and abandoned three miles away in Whitby Avenue in the Ladybarn area of the city.
Mr Samwell trained as a naval officer at Britannia Royal Naval College in Devon and spent around a decade in the senior service before leaving in 2014.
He had graduated from the University of Leeds before working in a number of roles for the Royal Navy, including on board a nuclear attack submarine as a weapons officer, according to his LinkedIn page.
Since leaving the forces he had worked as a programme manager for engineering firm Atkins in Warrington, Cheshire.
An Atkins spokesman said: “This is a tragic event and our thoughts go out to Mike’s family, friends and colleagues. We will support the family in any way we can.”