THE body of a popular Bolton DJ lay undiscovered for nine hours after his car plunged into a gulley at the side of a motorway.

Mitchell Brown's mobile phone rang beside his dead body for hours as his frantic mum and girlfriend tried to contact him.

Mitchell, aged 31, from Great Lever, had been travelling from his job as a DJ in the Walkabout pub in Doncaster to be with his student fiancee, Claire Bowden, at Sheffield University. His Peugeot 306 veered off the M18 near Doncaster and into a ditch in the early hours of the morning.

He died from head injuries and a farmer tending his sheep in an adjacent field eventually saw the crashed car in the ditch.

His heartbroken mother Sandra Brown said: "I can't stand the thought of his phone ringing beside him as he lay in the car. We've been told he died instantly."

Mitchell had a flourishing career as a DJ which had taken him across the UK and as far afield as Kavos in Greece.

He had been with 20-year-old Claire for four years and the couple were planning to marry.

Mrs Brown, aged 60, a retired housekeeper, of Albert Street, Little Lever, said: "This was absolutely the best time of his life. He had a good job, he was going back to Kavos to be a DJ and he and Claire were making wedding plans."

Mitchell, who has older brothers Robert, Earle and Elliot, attended Little Lever Primary School and Little Lever High School.

After leaving school he got a job working behind post office counters, but being a disc jockey was his real passion.

He first tried his DJ skills in pubs and clubs around Bolton, and eventually realised his dream of doing the job full time.

He spent a few years working in the top clubs in Kavos, quickly becoming the highest paid DJ in the resort because of his ability to fill the dance floor.

His popularity brought him to the attention of the makers of the ITV1 series Greece Uncovered and he was featured in the show. Mitchell had also started making his own CDs.

Mitchell was based at a flat in Great Lever, which he came back to in between DJ jobs.

Since the accident on January 15, Mrs Brown has been inundated with scores of sympathy cards filled with moving tributes to the "gentle," "honest" and "unassuming" DJ.

One said: "You drank in the roughest of our pubs but you never got involved in any trouble."

Mitchell's father Bob died 10 years ago and Mrs Brown said: "I just hope they are together now."

Mitchell's funeral will take place on Friday, January 23, at 11.30am at Overdale West Chapel.

His final CD was called 'Relentless' and he had hired a session singer to provide the vocals.