Cardiff car crash: Three out of five dead found dead after search

Police, looking for five people, found three dead and two injured two days after they went missing after a night out.

Gwent police said they believed the group were involved in a car accident.

Sophie Rawson, 20, Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, Ravel Jean, 24, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were last seen around 02:00 BST on Saturday in Cardiff.

The car in which they were last seen was found by a member of the public early on Monday on the A48 in St Melons.

The road is a main road into Cardiff and the car was found near a busy roundabout near a park centre.

Family and friends made repeated calls to find the missing kit over the weekend, with the mother of one of the girls saying she was told to stop calling the police for updates.

Rawson is one of the two in hospital and is in critical condition, her cousin said, while the identities of the three dead have yet to be identified.

A long cordon of police was placed on the scene on what would normally be a busy stretch of the dual carriageway linking Cardiff and Newport.

Just downhill, under a small bank is a wooded area where the car was discovered. The officers were working there, hidden by trees from view, removing bodies and checking the scene.

One resident said that the area was difficult to reach on foot and was in an area where “no one walks.”

The car was removed onto a lorry just before 13:00, the car was covered by police and the road reopened an hour later.

Police will try to determine when the car crashed there after the group was last seen, and why it took until the early hours of Monday for it to be discovered.

Near the scene of the accident, people put flowers.

A woman who lived nearby said that many people were shocked after waking up to hear about the tragedy.

Going beyond the scene made it feel horribly real, said Jo Warner, who lives near the crash site.

She added, “What they’ve been through, you can’t bear to think about it, right? I don’t like to speculate about what happened, but it’s just heartbreaking.”

“It could have been anyone’s children. It could have been mine.”

Over the weekend, family and friends of the missing group appealed several times on social media to find them.

The women, from Newport, went to The Muffler club in the city’s Maesglas district late Friday.

They then traveled 36 miles (58 kilometers) to Tricot Bay, a caravan park in the coastal resort of Porthcawl in County Bridgend, with the two men, both from Cardiff.

A Snapchat photo shared by Ms Ross’s sister showed her and Mr Jane together the night they went missing.

The group was last seen in Landeren, Cardiff, in the early hours of Saturday, but it is not yet clear when the incident occurred.

Rawson’s mother, Anna Certovich, 42, was going around desperately searching for her daughter after police officers told her to “stop calling” the station for updates.

She told the Daily Mail: “They didn’t seem to care. I had to drive to Cardiff to knock on the doors myself because they were doing everything. They didn’t seem to think it was worth investigating. It was very frustrating.”

Holly Smith wrote on Twitter that her cousin, Rawson, had been taken to hospital and was in critical condition.

“Sadly, the other three passengers have died and we are thinking of the families who have lost loved ones,” she wrote.

The Volkswagen Tiguan they were traveling in was found in the early hours of Monday near a busy roundabout on the A48 motorway, near Cardiff Garden Centre.

A temporary fence was erected on the side of the road where the officers focused their investigation.

Before the car was found, one of the girls’ aunts said “there was no contact and no social media presence since the early hours of Saturday morning.”

In a plea to find them, Tory Brace posted a message on Facebook saying that “all the families involved are very concerned.”

“They are not girls who take unnecessary risks and are always in close contact with their families,” she wrote.

Ms Brace shared a post from Lauren Doyle in which she said it was “unusual” that the girls had not reached out and that friends and families were “worried and thinking the worst”.

Police said specialized officers are supporting the families.

The case was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in line with normal procedures.

“We will make an assessment in due course to determine what additional actions may be required of us,” the IOPC said.

Gwent Police confirmed that South Wales Police are investigating the incident.

South Wales Police said they had received a call at 00:15 to a “car report” off the A48 motorway in St Melons.

“Our thoughts are with those affected by this accident,” she said.

72-year-old Howard Dainton, a resident of St. Melons, said the crash site was in a wooded area.

“No one walks there because it is difficult to enter that area on foot,” he said.

“It’s just a dome of trees and a ditch and behind those farm fields.

Meanwhile, police said a man was arrested at the scene to prevent disturbance of the peace.

The PA news agency reported that Thomas Taylor, 47, of Romney, Cardiff, was arrested after he was told to leave the area.

Speaking before his arrest, Mr Taylor, a film and television extra, told PA: “When I heard the reports, I couldn’t believe it was possible for a car to drive off and no one would know it was there.

“I still don’t get it.

“It’s normal that they’ve gone a little farther, but the families’ instincts are correct.”