Family's two-year fight to bring killer driver back from Latvia

Days after her 12-year-old son was killed by a BMW driver travelling at 70mph, Louise Slater sat outside the suspect's home, gathering the courage to plead with his family to hand him in.She had been given the name and address of Aleksanders Dolars after her son Keaton was killed in a hit-and-run in Coventry.Distraught, she was preparing to knock on the door when a neighbour approached and asked what she was doing.When she explained, he told her the family, from Latvia, had packed up and left a day or two earlier.Keaton's suspected killer had fled just hours after leaving him dying in the road.What followed was a relentless two-year fight by his parents to track him down and bring him back to England to face justice.He was finally jailed on Friday, for nine years and four months.This article contains details some readers may find upsettingDolars' name had been already circulating locally before police identified him as their main suspect on 18 June 2024, four days after Keaton was killed.A family waiting at nearby traffic lights said their seven-seater "shook violently" as a BMW driver sped past at what appeared to be far more than the 30mph limit. Moments later, they saw something fly into the air behind them.The car did not stop.As it disappeared from view, the family noticed a black rucksack and a single shoe lying in Radford Road and realised a child may have been hit.Taiwo Owatemi, MP for Coventry North West, was working behind the scenes to build political support.Colleagues in Westminster had warned her that, without an extradition agreement between the UK and EU, securing Dolars' return would be extremely difficult.However, she was encouraged by the Latvian ambassador telling her his country did not want a difficult relationship with the UK, given the proximity of the country to Ukraine and its continuing war with Russia.She also learned from him that Latvians were angry at what had happened and that Dolars was bringing shame on their country."When you have Latvians in Latvia asking for justice, when you have Latvians in the UK asking for justice, that's his number one job as ambassador," Owatemi said.Latvians were also proactive identifying where Dolars was in the country, she said.Louise said she had received messages from families there via a Facebook page set up within the community after Keaton's death.She said people were saying, "we don't want him here, he's scum".They also sent a video of Dolars happily walking around and also with his car. She sent them to police."He was free. He thought he'd got away with it," she said.In February 2026, there was a breakthrough. The Latvian government considered legislation to allow citizens to be extradited to the UK for prosecution.Campaigning by the family had helped bring about a new law where instances of extradition would now be considered on a case-by-case basis.