Photograph: Facebook
Families and friends have expressed anger that it took up to 46 hours to find five people in the wreckage of a car crash that left three of them dead and two seriously injured.
Friends and relatives of the three young women and two men raised the alarm when they failed to return home from a Friday night out in Newport, south Wales.
Hundreds of members of the public took part in searches but Gwent police did not issue a public appeal for help until 11pm on Sunday, and the car was finally found shortly after midnight on Monday.
The vehicle had veered off a slip road and come to rest in a small copse of evergreen trees, shielded from nearby houses and a busy garden centre.
Eve Smith and Darcy Ross, both 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24, were found dead in the car off the A48(M) in St Mellons, Cardiff. Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were badly injured in the wreckage of the VW Tiguan next to their dead friends. Police said on Monday evening that the two survivors remained in a critical condition in hospital.
Dozens of loved ones of the five left floral tributes and balloons near the copse on Monday, and once the car had been removed many of them examined tyre tracks on the grass verge leading from the slip road into the copse, and a tree that the vehicle had smashed into.
Many of them claimed the car was found by members of the public search party, though Gwent police said it was spotted by a police helicopter.
Tamzin Samuels, 20, a carer who joined the search for her friends, said: “I do think the police could have done a lot more – put up the helicopter earlier. They only posted an appeal an hour before the girls were found. The search party found the girls before the police. I think that speaks volumes, really. It’s so public [the crash site] – a main roundabout, a main road.
“These girls were so popular. They were the life of the party. Darcy lived life to the fullest. She was great. Eve had a smile that could brighten a room as soon as she walked in. A real feisty, independent girl but everyone loved her just as much.”
Another friend, Rhian Taylor, 26, said: “Those poor young girls could have been saved if they were found earlier. Thousands of people must have driven past. Why did it take so long to find them?”
A friend of the Loughlin family, who asked not to be named, said: “The police were terrible. I don’t think they took it seriously. The families said it was out of character for them to go missing. The police should have listened.”
Gwent police said they had referred the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. An IOPC spokesperson said: “We will carry out an assessment in due course to determine what further action may be required.”
It is the second road death tragedy to hit the family of Eve Smith, after her sister Xana Doyle was killed in 2015 aged 19 when a car in which she was a passenger flipped over. The driver, Sakhawat Ali, then 23, had been taking drugs and was twice the drink-drive limit. He served five years in jail.
The five had been to a social club in Maesglas, Newport, on Friday night and were due to travel 40 miles to the seaside town of Porthcawl. The last sighting of them was at about 2am on Saturday in Cardiff.
A friend of Russon’s family said her mother, Anna Certowicz, was angry at the police response, claiming they told her to stop contacting officers for updates.
The neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “She was very angry. She said they [the police] just weren’t that interested. She was told: ‘They’ll turn up soon enough, probably with just a hangover.’”
South Wales police, who are leading the investigation as the crash happened on their patch, said on Monday evening: “Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances of the incident, including when the collision took place. The five individuals were the subject of enquiries by Gwent police following a missing person report made during the evening of Saturday 4 March. A subsequent missing person report in respect of one of the individuals was made to South Wales police on Sunday 5 March.
“Referrals have been made by Gwent police and South Wales police to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. The last confirmed sighting of the five was during the early hours of Saturday morning.”
