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Desperate search for four teenagers who vanished on camping trip in Wales

Parents ‘frantic with worry’ after teenagers go missing on camping trip in Wales

Lydia Patrick
Tuesday 21 November 2023 15:09 GMT
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Snowdonia search underway for four missing teenage boys

The mother of one of four teenagers who vanished on a camping trip in North Wales has said that she is “frantic with worry” as police revealed the car they were travelling in has been found.

Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris, 18, were last seen on Sunday in a silver Ford Fiesta in Snowdonia, where temperatures plummeted to zero overnight.

The boys, in their late teens and from the Shrewsbury area, are thought to have been travelling in the Harlech and Porthmadog areas of Gwynedd when they went missing.

Today, officers located the vehicle the missing boys were travelling in, said North Wales Police in a statement.

Police officers and colleagues from other emergency services are currently at the location and the families of those involved have been kept updated.

Their families say they are "frantic with worry", adding that the boys were only equipped with basic camping supplies because they were just going for one night.

They were expected back home on Monday morning, but no one has heard from them since and their phones are turned off, the MailOnline reported.

Snowdonia is a popular camping location (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The mother of Harvey, Crystal Owen, told the BBC: I am frantically worried, we haven’t slept a wink, we are desperate to chase any lead we can.

“If I’d have known [where he was going] I wouldn’t have let him due to the winter weather conditions. They are all sensitive, intelligent lads and we are just hoping they parked up, got lost and are OK.”

A major search operation has been launched in the Eryri (Snowdonia) national park, with a police helicopter, coastguard and mountain rescue teams involved.

Their worried parents have shared a police appeal for information on social media, saying they are “desperate for any news”.

One wrote: “Please keep sharing… if anyone knows anything or can think of anything that may help find the boys please contact the police. We are desperate for any news.”

Another added: “I am frantic with worry, one of these boys is my son Harvey.

“Please please please share and tag anyone in Wales or get in touch with any information you may have.”

Lisa Corfield, the mother of Wilf’s girlfriend Maddi, told MailOnline: “They are not experienced campers.

“They have never been there before ‘[They] were just going for the night so have a tent and sleeping bags but only the basics.”

Chris Lloyd, from the Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team, told the BBC they went out to look for the missing boys yesterday.

Mr Lloyd said: “Our first job was to look for any indication they were on the mountain. We deployed two or three teams to drive around all the carparks. We cannot find the car.

“We are still actively looking for it and are continuing to search. We don’t have specific area where to search.”

The boys were last seen in the car with the registration HY14 GVO.

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