THE sister of five-year-old April Jones, who was abducted and murdered while playing outside her home in Machynlleth, has spoken candidly about the lasting fear the tragedy has left her with as a mother
Thirteen years after April was taken from the Bryn-y-Gog housing estate in October 2012, her elder sister Hazel Jones says the trauma continues to shape her life and the way she raises her own children.
Hazel, now 31, was just 18 and heavily pregnant when her half-sister was murdered. Speaking about the impact of that time, she said the fear has never really left her – particularly as her eldest child reaches the age April was when she died.
“My daughter has just turned 13. She’s going into Year Eight and she wants to go out and do things with her friends,” Hazel said. “I don’t know how I’m meant to let her grow up.
“I’m scared of who’s around. Who can you actually trust? Is anyone watching you? Is anyone following you? The world we live in is so scary.”
She added: “After April, I’m petrified to let my kids go out and start having their own lives. When my daughter was five, I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is the age April was when she went.’”
April disappeared on the evening of October 1, 2012, after getting into a Land Rover owned by local man Mark Bridger while playing on her pink bicycle with friends. Bridger was later convicted of her kidnap and murder and jailed for life. Despite one of the largest search operations in UK history, April’s body was never recovered, although fragments of her remains were later found at Bridger’s cottage.
Hazel recalls vividly the moment she learned her sister was missing.
“I was at home in Aberaeron with my mum when she came up to me and said April was missing,” she said. “She said it twice and it took seconds that felt like minutes to actually process what she was saying. I was just in shock.”
She rushed to be with her father, Paul, and the rest of the family, but it was the following day that the reality began to sink in.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, she’s actually really missing.’ Not just gone for a wander – really missing,” Hazel said. “At the time it was a young girl getting into a van and you think, surely not. This doesn’t happen around here. It wouldn’t happen to us. And then it did.”
When the truth of what had happened became clear, Hazel said she was “petrified”.
“I was carrying my daughter at the time and I was terrified to bring her into the world knowing there were people like that so close to us,” she said. “It makes you realise you can’t trust anyone. I couldn’t understand how it could have happened.”
Just weeks later, Hazel gave birth to her daughter Amelia – a moment that should have been filled with joy, but was instead overshadowed by grief.
“When Dad and Coral came to see her in hospital, they were shocked because she looked so much like April,” she said. “I had just lost my sister and just given birth. I was trying to grieve while also loving my new daughter.”
Now a mother of three – Amelia, 13, Ethan, 10, and six-year-old Hefin – Hazel says the worry has remained constant, made harder by how closely Amelia resembled April at the same age.
“She was only on this earth for five years,” Hazel said. “I remember thinking she hadn’t even had the chance to experience life. That was taken away from April.
“I want my daughter to see the world and have everything that April never got.”
Hazel has always been open with her children about what happened to their aunt, keeping mementos and press cuttings available for when they feel ready to look through them.
“I’ve never hidden it away from my kids and I never will,” she said. “It’s real life. It happened, and I want them to be aware and look after themselves.”
The family suffered further loss earlier this year when Hazel’s father Paul died on May 14, following a long battle with a brain disease. He had never fully recovered from losing April, Hazel said.
“My dad was never the same after April,” she recalled. “Once she went, a part of him went and never came back. I like to think he’s now back with April and at peace. Losing him felt like losing another part of myself.”
Last summer, Bridger was attacked for a second time while in prison. Asked about the incident, Hazel said: “He deserves everything he’s getting.”
Despite the passage of time, Hazel admits the reality of what happened still feels unreal.
“It’s been 13 years and it still hasn’t sunk in,” she said. “I still don’t believe it happened to us. I don’t know if I don’t want to believe it, but I’m still waiting to wake up from this nightmare.”
