As we reported on Tuesday, officers found a badly burnt body by the side of the M45 near Dunchurch.

Now they have released a computerised topography scanned image of the victim's face after officially announcing that they have launched a murder investigation.

The images, taken during the Post Mortem examination, show the man's face and profile. He appears to have a distinctively shaped nose and slightly protruding front teeth.

The man's ethnicity is not known, but he is believed to have had extended sideburns or a full beard, which was dark but greying - this is not shown in the CT image.

He is also believed to have had longish wispy hair and was between 5ft 2inches and 5ft 6inches tall. The victim is thought to be aged between 45 years and 75 years old.

A police spokesperson said: "The man had sustained substantial injuries to his head and was dead prior to his body being deposited at the side of the M45, where it was set on fire on Tuesday.

"The fire service was initially alerted to a fire on the embankment on the eastbound carriage way of the M45 near to Dunchurch at around 1.15pm on Tuesday 30 December by a passing motorist. On attendance they believed a body was involved and the police were called.

"The man was declared dead and his body was taken to the University Hospital in Coventry, where a Post Mortem examination carried out on Wednesday 31 December revealing the extent of the injuries to his head.

"The M45 motorway was closed to traffic for over 24 hours while specialist search officers carried out an extensive search of a six mile stretch of both carriageways."

Detective Superintendent Adrian McGee, who is leading the murder enquiry said: "Who have you not received a text from this New Year's Eve? Who have you not spoken to? Who did not turn up? Who did you not hear from that you expected to at the start of 2009 that matches the description we have given?"

"We also want to hear from anyone who was driving along the M45 motorway on Tuesday 30 December between 12.30pm - 1.30pm, who may have seen anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, such as a car stopped on the hard shoulder."

Anyone with any information which can assist the police to identify the victim, or who was on the M45 on Tuesday 30 December is asked to contact the murder incident room on 01926 415791 or 01926 415789, or they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.