Binman spotted car with bodies of four missing boys killed in …
A binman spotted the Ford Fiesta containing the bodies of four teenagers almost two days after they were reported missing. The schoolboys, from Shropshire[1], had gone to Snowdonia to camp.
Their bodies were found at 10am yesterday, Tuesday, November 21. It appeared the car carrying the boys, from Shrewsbury[2], had left the road near Tremadog, Gwynedd.
Farmer Rhys Williams lives just 25 metres from the spot where the bodies of the boys were found. He recalled the tragedy, telling how a binman had described raising the alarm with police after spotting the Fiesta.
Poll: Should parents be able to take their kids on holiday during term time?[4]
Mr Williams - who lives at Garreg Hyll Drem Farm - said he and his wife Carys were woken up hours before by the sound of a search and rescue helicopter, MirrorOnline reports[5]. He said "Early yesterday we heard the helicopter directly above us.
"It had the searchlight on. It was still dark. It was hovering and loud. I didn't think much of it. It moved on and came back later. They wouldn't have seen anything, no chance."
A police road block at Garreg, Llanfrothen on the approach to Aberglaslyn and Nantmor in Eryri (Image: David Powell)
Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Fitchett, 17, and Hugo Morris, 18, were studying for A-Levels at Shrewsbury College[6]. They were reported missing by their families when they failed to return home[7] on Monday.
It is believed their silver Ford Fiesta plunged off a windy country road and overturned in a flooded ditch. It was not known exactly when the fatal crash took place.
Mr Williams said there were 'brutal' weather conditions on Sunday, November 19. He said the boys were 'so unlucky' to have left the road on a sharp bend, flipping their vehicle into a ditch which was flooded by two days of rain.
Mr Williams said: "They were found by the recycling lorry at 10 that morning. They were higher up, that's why they could see them. The binman told us they had phoned the police. It is only 25 metres around the corner from here. I could see the car but I didn't see anything else.
"They must have been going from Harlech north towards Snowdonia. This is one of two roads they could have taken. There are no tracks on the road, nothing to be seen. It's a sharp bend, it narrows. There were lots of leaves on that corner. There have been one or two accidents there before."
The Fiesta was removed from the scene on Tuesday evening. Officers returned to search the area by torchlight during the morning of Wednesday, November 22.
Mr Williams added: "They were so unlucky, the way the car went in. It has gone into the ditch, low into the ditch. It's a small car. I went past and didn't see anything. Two buses would have gone past before 10am and not seen anything. They would have been there all Monday.
"You have got to be in a high vehicle to see anything and you have got to be looking, a passenger. The driver would have been looking at the road. The binman who saw it said something caught his eye. He was on his phone and he looked over. You would struggle to see from a car."
The bend where the car left the road is a point at which the mobile signal, patchy on some networks, can disappear. Mr Williams said: "Some networks have no signal here. EE is good, but Vodafone is not good. On Sunday the water was high. It was brutal on Sunday.
"There's always a foot or two of water in the ditch but it can come up to six feet, the level of the car. It was bad on Friday and Saturday, the river had gone high quickly. But by Tuesday morning the level had come down. They were so unlucky. They could have hit a tree or a fence and gone in another way."
Families[8] of the boys are expected to identify their bodies in Bangor. North Wales Police said in a statement yesterday that the deaths appeared to have been a 'tragic accident'.
The road remained closed while a specialist police underwater and marine search van was at the scene on Wednesday, November 22.
References
- ^ Shropshire (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Shrewsbury (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Grieving dad punched victim 14 times in front of wife during 'wild west nightclub brawl' (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Poll: Should parents be able to take their kids on holiday during term time? (xd.wayin.com)
- ^ MirrorOnline reports (www.mirror.co.uk)
- ^ Shrewsbury College (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ home (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Families (www.birminghammail.co.uk)