Snowdonia latest: Mother of killed teenager says she is 'living in a nightmare'

The mother of a teenage boy who was killed in a car crash while on a camping trip in Snowdonia said that she is “living in a nightmare”.

Crystal Owen, the mother of 17-year-old Harvey, spoke of her appreciation of people’s “kindness” following the news of her son’s death, but said that “nothing will make this nightmare go away”.

Harvey, along with his college friends Wilf Henderson, Jevon Hirst and Hugo Morris, were found dead on Tuesday after their silver Ford fiesta was discovered submerged in a river.

Ms Owen had previously said that she had not known her son was going on a camping trip, and if she had she “wouldn’t have let him due to the weather conditions”.

Writing on Facebook after the news broke of the teenagers’ deaths, Ms Owen said: “I feel like I’m in a nightmare I wish I could wake up from but I’m not.”

Follow the latest developments below.

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By Alex Barton and Genevieve Holl-Allen

22 November 2023 • 10:09am

10:09AM

Teenagers' deaths have 'impacted everyone', says local vicar

A local vicar in Shrewsbury, where the four teenagers were from, said that the news of their deaths was “utterly devastating” for the community.

Rev Charlotte Gompertz, of the Oxon Vicarage, told BBC Radio 4: “It’s impacted everyone, as you say it’s a tight knit community where many of the young people have been at school since they were four years old.”

The vicar said that she knew some of the families involved, and added: “It’s going to take a long time for us to get our heads even vaguely around this tragedy.

“It will be devastating for the students, it’s a huge sixth form college, they’ve had some tragedies over the last couple of months, but I know they are putting things in place to help the students.”

The vicarage opened its doors yesterday evening to allow local residents to light candles and pray.

“We are doing the same tonight and I am sure we are going to have people tonight to pay their respects in the best way they can in this early stage,” she said.

9:33AM

Pictured: Snowdonia car accident

Police officers arrive before sunrise to search the water filled gulley where the crash is believed to have happened

9:29AM

Every mother and father will be feeling the pain of the Snowdonia parents

When the alarm went up on Sunday that Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris, all sixth form students at Shrewsbury College, were missing, every mother, every father in the land held their collective breath.

With the news that the bodies of four students were found in a crashed car, the grief that grips their families is a nightmare come true.

See the full story here.

9:25AM

How the search for the missing Snowdonia boys unfolded

On Tuesday morning, desperate and frantic with worry, the parents of the four teenage boys who had disappeared on a camping weekend in Snowdonia, sped across Wales to help with the search.

Almost 19 hours from when they were first reported missing at 3.10pm on Monday, a car was discovered. A silver Ford Fiesta was found submerged in the ice-cold waters of a river just outside the remote village of Garreg.

Inside were the bodies of the four boys.

See the full story here.

9:22AM