Maretta Pritchard's father died when she was just a baby. 30 years on she decided to investigate what happened on that tragic Autumn Saturday.

MARETTA steadied herself as she flicked through the yellowing 30-year-old newspapers in the library.

Sometimes her heart shuddered to a brief halt as she caught sight of a male face, which matched the image in her head.

Maretta Pritchard knew she did not look like her biological mother so she assumed she must have inherited her blonde hair and tall stature from her father.

As he had died when she was a baby and she had never seen a photograph of him, the picture she held in her mind's eye was merely a fantasy of the father she never had.

Her hands shook as she came across a copy of the Evening Argus, as it was then, printed the day after the date on her father's death certificate - Saturday, October 28, 1972.

Nothing could have prepared her for the photograph on the front page.

It wasn't the handsome flaxen-haired man she had dreamt of since her childhood.

In black and white pixilated newsprint was stark evidence of her father's last moments.

The mangled wreck of the lorry Dennis Jackson had been driving was pictured upside down in North Street, Brighton. The photo showed there was little left of the cab.

Maretta read the accompanying account of the accident with horror.

Through eyes blurred by tears, she discovered her father's runaway lorry had demolished a pedestrian guard rail, crashed into a shop window and hit two other cars. Pedestrians had run screaming for cover and eight were slightly injured.

Mr Jackson died as fire crews tried to free his trapped legs from the squashed cab.

The 27-year-old sheet metal worker was said to have been hurtling towards the Clock Tower at speeds of 60mph, yet an interview with his neighbour revealed he had been having a cup of tea in his garden just two hours earlier.

How the accident happened and why Mr Jackson, from Cambridge Road, Hove, was travelling in his lorry late one night remains a mystery.

Maretta, 29, said: "I always wondered who my dad was and wanted a photo of him. I was very upset about it when I was younger. I craved a father.

"I dreamt about him from an early age and was very affected by it all. I used to get angry and felt like my dad had been taken away from me."

The mother-of-two added: "I was adopted when I was ten by the foster mother I had been with since being a baby but I was very insecure.

"I was behind at school and needed extra help in classes because I couldn't concentrate.

"I wanted to know what having a father was like.

"I'm not like my biological mum, who was short with black hair. I always imagined my dad was tall with blonde hair and I thought I must take after him and look like him. I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I had seen a photo of him "But I never expected to see the photo of the crash. I cried when I saw it."

Maretta, of Craven Road, Brighton, does not expect she will ever find out exactly what happened but the grim discovery has left her unable to rest until she has spoken with witnesses and old friends and family of her biological dad.

Or until she has found his body or ashes.

Immediately after reading of her father's fate, Maretta knew she had to see his grave. The problem was she could find no record of it.

She said: "I've always felt like part of me is missing. I need to find out where his body is. He must be buried somewhere.

"I contacted Woodvale Cemetery and was told his body was signed out of their morgue just after his death but they can't tell me who signed to take him.

"It says on the document he was taken to Grays in Essex but I've phoned up every cemetery and crematorium there and there's no record of him. This is effectively a missing dead person.

"If I knew where his grave was or his ashes were scattered, I could visit and keep going back. It would help me so much. I feel in limbo at the moment."

Maretta would like to get in contact with people mentioned in the 1972 article.

The drivers of the two cars involved in the crash were named as John Hubbard, of Hamilton Road, Brighton, and Gerry Lindsay, of Hallett Road, Brighton.

Mr Jackson's neighbour, whom he had tea with before the crash, was Brian Denton and Maretta is also keen to speak to any of her father's old colleagues at the old Southern Rag, Metal and Paper works in Hove.

If you knew Mr Jackson, who was born in Hackney, contact Maretta on 07940 720717.