Body of missing man found under highway

• Tweet

MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The body of a man who vanished more than eight years ago after a night on the town with colleagues in Manchester, England, was found this week under a highway.

Police are trying to determine what happened to Vincent Derrick, who was 28 when he was last seen alive in the early hours of Aug. 30, 2003. A taxi dropped him off in Stockport, and he was supposed to spend the night at his boss' house but he never showed up, The Guardian reported.

Vicki Derrick said Friday she has known since 2003 that her husband was dead.

"The past eight years have been the toughest eight years of my life and it hasn't been easy," she said at a news conference in Manchester. "It is quite ironic that we have now found Vinny and the struggle that I had all last year trying to get the presumption of death certificate … and now he has been found."

The body was identified through dental records, police said. No clothes or identification were discovered when the body was found Wednesday night. Police have cordoned off the area and were conducting a search.

Derrick and his colleagues had been at the Jabez Clegg night club in Manchester.