Four young men aged 16 to 18, who had not given any signs of life since Sunday after setting off on a camping trip, were found lifeless in their overturned and half-submerged vehicle in a river in the Pays de Wales on Tuesday found.
“I feel like I’m in a nightmare that I’d like to wake up from, but that’s not the case […] Nothing will make this nightmare go away,” Crystal Owen, the mother of one of the four victims, Harvey Owen, lamented on Facebook Wednesday morning, according to The Guardian.
The young man and his three friends Jevon Hirst, Wilf Fitchett and Hugo Morris were found lifeless in their overturned and half-submerged car in a river in Snowdonia, North Wales, where they had planned to spend the night, British media reported.
But on Monday, when the group would normally have returned from their escapade just 100 kilometers from their home in Shrewsbury, England, their families had reported their disappearance without hearing from them.
It wasn’t until the next day that a person discovered their overturned vehicle, close to where they were last seen, The Guardian reported.
The search had kept the country in suspense as tributes poured in on social media following the announcement of the tragic deaths.
“I will miss you forever. The sweetest and most loving boy I have ever known. Thank you for loving me endlessly. I promise I will do the same for you. I cannot imagine my world without you” , Wilf Fitchett’s girlfriend Maddi posted on Instagram.
“For all of us who are parents and see 16 and 17 year olds going out for the first time after passing their driving test, our thoughts are with the families,” commented Liz Saville Roberts, MP for Plaid Cymru, the area where they lived her life, to BBC Radio Wales.