Police launch probe into caravan park ‘altercation’ hours before Newport crash killed 3 as cops search for 6th passenger
COPS have launched a probe into an “altercation” at a caravan park that broke out just hours before a crash that killed three people.
Rafel Jeane-Actie, 24, and pals Eve Smith and Darcy Ross, both 21, died when their white VW Tiguan crashed near Cardiff, Wales in the early hours of Saturday.
Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were discovered alive inside the wreck 48 hours later off the A48 in St Mellons – they remain in a critical condition in hospital.
Now South Wales Police have revealed they are investigating an alleged altercation and reports of a sixth passenger in the car, reports The Mirror.
The clash reportedly took place at Trecco Bay caravan park in Porthcawl, where the group drove after leaving a nightclub 40 miles away in Newport.
Before the horror smash, the group is understood to have dropped off a sixth passenger, an unnamed man, at his home in Cardiff after leaving the site.
The five pals had been out at Muffler bar and club in Maeglas, Newport, on Friday night before heading to Porthcawl and back prior to the smash off a roundabout.
Sophie’s uncle was working behind the bar at Mufflers that evening.
‘ALTERCATION’
A source who did not want to be named told The Sun: “The girls are very well known here, their families all drink here.
“Two of the girls just popped in to use the toilets. I’ve never seen the men before, they don’t come in here.
“We heard they went to the caravan park and there was some sort of altercation, we don’t know what that was, but they had to leave.
“There was another man in the car who wanted to go home. They dropped him off and then at some point crashed.”
A police spokesperson said: “While that investigation is ongoing we will not be commenting further.”
It comes after Lewis Pace, a close friend of Rafel who died in the smash, and his dad Matthew told how they discovered the wreckage before cops.
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The family says they came across the car just after midnight on Monday – 15 minutes after launching their search – when they saw tyre marks off the roundabout.
Matthew, from Cardiff, said the pair pulled up and walked towards the trees after spotting what they thought was “a headlight glinting”.
He added: “The next minute a plain clothes police car pulled up… They radioed in to the helicopter and shone flashlights to guide it in… it went crazy.”
Despite the pair’s account, Gwent Police claim it was officers from the force that discovered the car, saying: “Officers on the ground had sight of the car at 12:02am and this culminated in a log being created by South Wales Police at 12:15 am.”
Friends Sophie, Eve, and Darcy arrived at Muffler bar and club at around 11pm on Friday.
Inside the trio met Shane and Rafel, whom the girls had never met, before all five went to Shane’s family caravan in Trecco Bay, Porthcawl – around 36 miles from Newport.
Darcy had posted photos of her and Rafel partying that night to Snapchat.
But haunting CCTV shows the car the group had been travelling in at around 2am in the Llanedeyrn area of Cardiff where they reportedly dropped off an unnamed man.
It comes as…
- Three pals were found dead in a crashed car after five people vanished while on a night out in Newport
- Eve Smith, 21, was confirmed dead by her family, who had tragically lost her sister in a crash eight years ago
- Two pals were pictured beaming on the night out before the tragedy
- The mum of Sophie Russon claimed cops told her to stop calling
- She has now revealed her agony at desperately searching for her daughter while she lay critically injured
- Haunting CCTV was shared by friends of the car before it vanished in the early hours of Saturday
- Police are now probing just what happened in the hours before the crash
The group may have travelled around 85 miles in total before coming off the road – but they remained undiscovered for 48 hours.
Police say they only received the first missing person report at 7.34pm on Saturday.
Further missing persons reports came in at 7.43pm, 9.32pm that night before South Wales Police received a fourth at 5.37pm on Sunday.
Cops from Gwent Police discovered the car around 12.02pm on Monday.