‘Police took two days to find my daughter Sophie Russon as she lay trapped beside her dead friends’ – Anna Certowicz reveals
A mother whose daughter lay trapped for 48 hours next to the bodies of three dead friends in the Wales car crash today told MailOnline how she had to go looking for her herself after police insisted she was ‘probably out partying’.
Anna Certowicz has revealed that her daughter Sophie Russon, 20, was ‘conscious some of the time’ in the car after it ran off the A48 in Cardiff and had ‘called out but no one was close enough to hear her.’
Mother-of-three Anna was one of 200 people out searching for Sophie, her friends Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, and two men named as Rafel Jeanne, 24, and Shane Loughlin, 32.
Ms Certowicz says police didn’t take her seriously when she told them her daughter Sophie, 20, was missing after a night out on Friday and fobbed off her concerns by telling her she was ‘probably out partying’.
‘She was conscious some of the time – she called out but no one was close enough to hear her.’
Bank worker Sophie was eventually found and cut out of the VW Tiguan where she spent two days knowing her friends were dead alongside her.
Miss Smith and Mr Jeanne died in the crash in the early hours of Saturday morning. Anna said the only people who knew what happened were her daughter and the other survivor Shane Loughlin.
All five victims who had been out together in Cardiff and Newport were found shortly after midnight last night.
Anna has hit out at Gwent Police for not responding urgently when the five were reported missing.
She said: ‘They didn’t take it seriously, they kept saying she’s 20 and they are all probably out partying.
‘I told them my daughter doesn’t go out on three day benders – she and her friends are good girls. It was out of character for all of them.
‘I was ringing the police all through Saturday and Sunday but they didn’t seem bothered.
‘Then all of a sudden, I don’t know what happened, but the police started ringing me asking for a photograph and a description.’
A police helicopter was launched to search for the missing five but the car was found by a young woman out searching for the group.
Anna said: ‘We all knew it was something serious, all their phones went off line at the same time.
‘But the police didn’t listen, they didn’t want to know, it’s disgraceful’.
Anna said she and other parents were kept waiting for two hours at the scene where they could hear firemen cutting up the car to reach the victims inside.
She said: ‘No one came over to tell us what was going on, it’s a parents worst nightmare but we didn’t get any support.
‘It wasn’t even the helicopter who found them even though it flew over a few times.
‘It was one of the volunteer searchers with a dog, if she hadn’t gone into the trees they would still be there now.’
Gwent Police has been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct who will carry out an investigation.
Anna said the car landed on its front and was tilted up in the air with Sophie, a trainee manager with Lloyds Bank, trapped by her seat belt which caused her burn injuries.
She said: ‘I have seen her in hospital, she’s all tubed up and we still don’t know if she’s going to survive. The next 48 hours are critical.’