Search for four missing teenagers on a camping trip ends in tragedy as police confirm their bodies have been found in the wreckage of a silver Ford Fiesta

• Police found the car following information from a member of the public

Four bodies have been found in a car during a search for a group of teenage friends who went missing together on a camping trip to Snowdonia, police tragically confirmed this afternoon.

Sixth form students Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris, from Shrewsbury, left the Porthmadog area of Gwynedd on Sunday morning. 

Police searching for the group found the silver Ford Fiesta off the A4085 between Nantmor and Tan-Lan this morning –  around five miles from where they were last seen two days ago. 

The young men, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, were due home on Monday morning but none of them made contact with friends and family – or had been active on WhatsApp. 

North Wales Police confirmed this afternoon that the car the boys had been travelling in had now been found. The force confirmed around four hours later that four bodies had been recovered from the vehicle, which had left the road. 

Teenager friends Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris were last seen getting into a silver Ford Fiesta car on Sunday morning. They have been found dead

Police have cordoned off the A8045 near the village of Garreg

Locals reported that a helicopter had been searching the Penrhyndeudraeth area before heading toward Nantmor and Beddgelert. The car was found at Garreg

Supt Owain Llewelyn, of North Wales Police, said: ‘At present, this appears to have been a tragic accident, and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the four young men at this very difficult time.

‘This has been an extensive search involving a number of different agencies and volunteers, and this is sadly not the outcome that any of us would have wanted. We would ask that the family be afforded the appropriate privacy and respect.’

Investigations are ongoing to establish the circumstances, police said.

Police cordoned off a four mile stretch of the A4085 between the villages of Garreg and Port Aberglaslyn, near Porthmadog, north Wales.

It is understood the Fiesta was spotted by a member of the public this morning, shortly after 10am, around three miles north of Garreg, close to the start of a popular waterfall walking route, known as Croesor Waterfalls Hike.

The road is steep and very windy in parts and there is almost no mobile phone signal in the area.

Timeline of the four missing teenagers

A timeline of what we know so far about the missing teenagers:

Saturday night

Harvey Owen left home on Saturday night. He told his mother he was staying at a friend’s grandfather’s house but he went on a camping trip. 

It is understood the boys arrived in Harlech at 11pm before travelling to Snowdonia the next morning. 

Sunday morning 

Harvey last used his mobile phone at around lunchtime, according to his mother.

Monday

The boys are reported missing at 3.10pm after they fail to arrive home to Shropshire. Worried parents say they have not had contact with their sons since the previous day. 

In a now-deleted post on X, North Wales Police said it had ‘concerns’ for the teenagers and appealed for anyone who had seen their silver Ford Fiesta to get in touch.

Tuesday 4.30am 

A coastguard helicopter from Caernarfon searches the area around the Glaslyn Nature Reserve at 4.30am, but returned to base with ‘nothing found’.

12.00pm 

Police say that following information from a member of the public, they had found the vehicle the teenagers were travelling in. 

4.30pm 

Police confirm four bodies had been recovered from the car after what they described as a ‘tragic accident’.  

A source told the Mail that a parent of one of the boys reported them missing when they failed to return home at around 3.10pm yesterday (Monday).

It is understood they travelled from their homes in Shrewsbury on Saturday night, arriving at Harlech at around 11pm. They stayed at an address in seaside town befo re heading to Snowdonia on Sunday morning.

The source said: ‘The plan seems to have been to camp in Snowdonia on Sunday evening, but it seems like they didn’t make it to a campsite.

‘The car looks has left the road on a bend, it seems the driver lost control abd ended up in a ditch.’

The alarm was only raised when they didn’t make it home on Monday afternoon.

Emyr Owen, who lives near the crash site, said that it had been ‘atrocious’ weather on the morning the boys went missing. He told the BBC that police began combing the area at 5am and closed the roads. Ambulances entered the cordon at around 1pm, followed by a police forensics team.

Manasa Boma, manager at The Royal Goat Hotel in Beddgelert, close to the scene, said: ‘Our handyman messaged me to say there had been a terrible accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who’s involved’.

A spokesman for the police said the car had been located ‘following information from a member of the public’.

Officers and other emergency services are currently at the scene and that they keeping the teenager’s families updated with information, they added.

Local councillor June Jones told Sky News: ‘I was hoping that they’d gone out camping wild and had no mobile signal. I was hoping very much that that is the reason why they haven’t been in contact – there’s not much mobile signal in this area and perhaps that is why’.

She said the ‘whole area is in complete shock’ and ‘everybody’s feelings are very much with the families at this time’.

‘It has been extremely wet and the rivers have been extremely high over the last few days. Obviously, it is November, the weather is bad. It is bad weather to be travelling in, especially with somebody who doesn’t know the roads very well’, she said.

Shrewsbury College has confirmed all four boys were all students there, working towards  their A-levels.

‘The college’s immediate thoughts are with the family and friends of the teenagers missing. This is a very worrying time, and we all want them to be found safe and well’.

Police set up a cordon closed the A4085 near the village of Garreg, which lies around three miles from Penrhyndeudraeth, near Porthmadog. An air ambulance is also believed to be on the scene.

Helicopters were seen circling the Tremadog area, near Cnicht mountain in Snowdonia, on Tuesday morning in the hunt for the missing boys. 

A coastguard helicopter from Caernarfon searched the area around the Glaslyn Nature Reserve at 4.30am, but returned to base with ‘nothing found’.

It has emerged that the four were not experienced campers and only had a tent and sleeping bags with them.

The young men, believed to be from the Shrewsbury area, were due home from their trip on Monday morning but none of them have made contact with friends and family. Pictured: Wilf Henderson 

North Wales Police launched an urgent hunt for the missing youngsters, with their worried parents driving to the area to help with the search after being left ‘frantic with worry’. Pictured: Jevon Hirst

Police have cordoned off the A8045 near the village of Garreg, where the car was found

Lisa Corfield, whose daughter Maddi is 17-year-old Wilf’s girlfriend, 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.’ 

Crystal Owen, the mother of Harvey, a 17-year-old student at Shrewsbury College doing A-levels, told the BBC that she was headed to North Wales in order to be closer to the search operation. 

Ms Owen said she did not know that her son was going on a camping trip and thought he was staying at a friend’s grandfather’s house for the night. 

She said: ‘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.’

Harvey’s mother reposted the appeal post shared by North Wales Police on Facebook and wrote: ‘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.’

Another family member, Mel Hirst, said they were ‘desperate for any news’ and pleaded users to keep sharing the post. 

North Wales Police released an update about the car the boys were in on Tuesday afternoon

The lack of contact was said to be out of character and friends said their families are ‘worried sick’. Pictured: Family members post on Facebook

Ms Corfield said the boys have not been seen or heard from and she begged people to share the post with as many people as possible so that they could ‘try and get them home safely’.

She told the Shropshire Star that the group set out to go camping on Saturday and were expected back on Sunday morning, but they ‘never returned’.  

Ms Corfield said: ‘Everybody is sick with worry and have not heard anything from them, which is very unusual for them. They have been trying their phones which must be either off or with no battery.’

Locals reported that a helicopter had been searching the Penrhyndeudraeth area before heading toward Nantmor and Beddgelert.

The area where the boys were missing is remote and mountainous, with narrow, winding single-lane roads into Snowdonia National Park.

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