Cardiff crash victim Sophie Russon left hospital for the first time to attend the funeral of her lifelong friend Darcy Ross, who died in the horrific accident, her mum has revealed. The 20-year-old has been in hospital recovering from horrific injuries she suffered in the crash seven weeks ago.
Sophie's mum Anna Certowicz spoke in a powerful interview with the Mirror in which she criticised police for their handling of the search for her daughter and her friends. The five were not found for 46 hours after their car crashed into woodland off the A48 in St Mellons, Cardiff.
Sophie's childhood friends Eve Smith, 20, and Darcy Ross, 21, were found dead in the early hours of Monday morning nearly two days after they had gone missing. The driver, Rafel Jeanne, 24, who was laid to rest in an emotional funeral earlier this month, was also found dead and his friend Shane Loughlin, 32, was also hurt.
Anna revealed that Sophie had managed to leave hospital for a few hours to attend Darcy's funeral last week. It was the first time she had left hospital since they were found early in the morning on Monday, March 6. “I think it’s something she had to do. She survived and her two best friends didn’t," said Anna.
Sophie was found semi-conscious outside the wrecked VW Tiguan. She had bruising on her brain and a build-up of fluid, which was drained in 14-hour life-saving surgery. She also suffered a broken arm and leg fractures, and is in a back brace to make sure her bones set correctly. Two weeks ago, she moved to a specialist rehab unit, where Anna says she is doing well.
Sophie met Eve and Darcy on their first day of infant school and they were inseparable. Anna was too devastated to discuss what happened but told us: “I will be sad the rest of my life.”
Anna, 40, hit out at the police’s “appalling” handling of the case and their treatment of victims’ families. She said she believes officers were far too casual and ignored their fears when they reported the pals missing.
She said: “If they got there sooner, we don’t know, but maybe they could have survived. The police did not do enough – it wasn’t until people started posting on social media that they paid us any attention. They had calls from me, Sophie’s dad and all the other families, but they were very blasé and said they’re probably out partying.”
Anna, also mum to Georgia, 24, and Milly, 13, said she had searched day and night for Sophie. She added: “There were 100 of us, knocking on doors, searching country lanes with torches – we were desperate.”
Sophie had only planned to go for a few drinks and was meant to stay over at Georgia’s house.
Anna said: “My girls are so close – they spend all their time together and are always talking on Snapchat, so when the messages stopped, we knew something bad had happened. Sophie is good as gold. She’s always messaging to let us know she’s OK.”
Sophie, who works in the fraud team at Lloyds, did not turn up for work on the Sunday – something Anna said “would never happen”.
“I explained to the police this was just not Sophie,” she said. “She takes her job extremely seriously.” The car crashed at 2.03am on Saturday, March 4. Gwent Police got three missing person reports that day, at 7.34pm, 7.43pm and 9.32pm. Another report was made to South Wales Police at 5.37pm on the Sunday.
A police helicopter was requested at 11.50pm that night and officers found the car in a wooded area off the A48 at 12.15am on Monday, March 6. Anna said police left them waiting for over two hours in the cold at the scene with no updates, then gathered families on the road, with some 100 onlookers, to deliver the devastating news.
She said: “They didn’t section anything off or give the families somewhere private – it was appalling. There was nobody to reassure us, no family liaison officer.”
Sophie had just enjoyed her first holiday abroad with Eve and the pals had Beyonce and Chris Brown tickets booked. Anna said: “Not having her friends around will hit Sophie the hardest.”
There is a GoFundMe page for Eve’s funeral, which is on Friday.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is probing Gwent Police’s handling of the crash. Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hobrough said: “We understand how distressing it is when a loved one goes missing and are aware of concerns raised around police actions.”
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