Serial Killer Documentary - Mark Bridger

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On the 3rd of October, 2012, Coral Jones gave an
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emotional televised appeal for the safe return of her daughter, April.
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The five-year-old had been missing for 36 hours. She'd vanished
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while playing outside her home in the rural Welsh town
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of Machynlleth.
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There must be someone out there who knows where she
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is and can help the police find.
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Her.
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We are desperate for any news. April is only five
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years old. Please, please help find her.
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The entire community came together to help the police search
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for the missing girl. There was a real hope that
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April would be found alive.
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They were all thinking, and of course her parents were thinking,
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she is going to be found. There's no doubt in
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my mind that she is going to be found.
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But the search would be in vain. A local 46-year-old
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man named Mark Bridger, who was known to the family,
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had abducted and murdered April.
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I said, I'll leave you, I'll see you later, and
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I'll come take you into bed, and I said, I'll
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leave you back, and that was the last I was
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aware of.
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Mark Bridger had undeniably become one of the world's most
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evil killers. MUSIC PLAYS It was a crime that shocked
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the nation and left a family heartbroken. In October 2012,
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five-year-old April Jones was abducted whilst playing outside her home
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on the Brynny Gog estate in the small town of
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Machynlleth in mid Wales. As news of April's disappearance spread
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through the media, police and volunteers scoured the town and countryside.
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kick-starting what was to become the biggest search for a
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missing person in the history of British policing. She's got
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to be around here somewhere. She's got to be. We
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will search. We'll go miles. We will travel miles to
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find her. But April's body would never be found. She'd
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been abducted and murdered by 46-year-old Mark Bridger, a local
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man and well-known member of the community. April's sister, Jasmine,
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was just 16 years old at the time.
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I kind of just knew him. Mum and dad knew
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him and said, hi, you all right?
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Quick sort of chat in the street about cars and
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bikes and that. When I was walking past, just kind
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of quick hello and off he went.
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After Bridger's arrest, police searched his laptop and found indecent
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pictures of children and screenshots of young girls from the
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area taken from their social media accounts. Local reporter Kieran
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Jones reported on the case.
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When you look at what was found on Bridger's laptop,
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there are a few ways that this case could have
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been more troubling. When you see images of April Jones,
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it's clear that Bridger had this grotesque fascination with young girls,
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with children. those type of scenarios where young girls were
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abducted and killed, and that absolutely is something that is condemning,
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condemning evidence.
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This killer's story begins over 50 years ago. Mark Bridger
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was born in Carsholton, Surrey, on the 6th of November 1965.
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He grew up in a happy family environment with his
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parents and two siblings.
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There weren't any indications for me in terms of Mark
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Bridges' childhood or his adolescence that would indicate that he'd
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go on to do something horrendous. He did seem to
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be an altogether very average young lad, and there were
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no red flags.
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His childhood was normal compared to most people. He came
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from a middle-class family. His father was a police officer,
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which he actually looked up to.
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But by 1984, 18-year-old Bridger had gone off the rails.
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He'd dropped out of college and struggled to hold a
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job down.
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All the jobs he got, he was a bit of
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a failure. So by the age of 20, this guy
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is like, he failed in school, he failed in college,
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he failed on whatever he wanted to do.
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In 1984, Bridger had his first brush with the law.
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He was convicted of theft and a firearms offence. And
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basically the story that he concocted around this was that
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he planned to go and fire an old pistol at
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a friend's farm and he'd stolen a car because it
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was too far for him to walk, which does seem
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to be rather ludicrous. And the prosecution thought that actually
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something altogether different had gone on. He was planning to
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actually carry out an armed robbery with this weapon and
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this stolen car. What Mark Bridger is doing from this
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point is he's getting used to lying, to being comfortable
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in a lie, to maintaining a lie, and this is
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something he'll do throughout his life.
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Bridger was placed on probation for two years and he
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struggled to find work. He lived in a fantasy world,
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often telling people he had a military background.
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There were tales that he'd been a soldier, that he'd
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been a lifeguard, that he might have worked in a
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meat factory, and when you boiled it down, you realised
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that nobody really knew He was wearing military fatigues, wearing
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a camouflage jacket, camouflage trousers, waterproof over trousers, almost like
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he thought he was some kind of action man figure,
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driving about in his Land Rover, projecting this image of
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himself as, I don't know, a brave father, as someone
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who'd done his duty for his country. And that wasn't
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a reality whatsoever.
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This is a very common thing that happened, not only
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with killers, but it happens with other people as well.
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You tend to make up for your failings by creating
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things that will impress other people. You want people to
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not look at you like, okay, dude, you're a loser,
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get out. So he starts making these stories to try
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to bring himself up in front of others. Like, I've
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been to the army. I did a tour of Vietnam
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or I did a tour of Iraq.
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Mark Bridger and secrecy do go hands in hands. You've
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got the Mark Bridger that he's presenting to the outside world,
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who's this kind of heroic figure. who's travelled the world,
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who's this alpha male, but actually on the inside, you've
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got somebody who is fundamentally ashamed of themselves and that's
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something that they want to keep secret. He doesn't like
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who he is. He isn't the kind of man that
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he thinks he should be, but he's become so comfortable
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in lying and elaborating and exaggerating that he just continues
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to do that.
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In 1990, Bridger moved away from his home in the
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south of England and relocated to Machynlleth, a market town
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near the Welsh coast.
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Machynlleth in North Wales, in Paris, is that it's a
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tiny rural community where everyone knows pretty much everybody else,
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where no-one would appear to be threatening in the least.
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Bridger moved from job to job, including working as a
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lifeguard and in an abattoir.
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I think Mark Bridger was somebody who had a significant
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history of failing at things, of failing at jobs, of
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failing at relationships and of developing a bit of a
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reputation in the local community. And I think what he
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was doing by moving to Mahuntleth was basically starting over,
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wiping the slate clean and trying to control the amount
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of information that people had about him and his life.
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By the age of 20, Bridger had fathered his first child,
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but he'd left his partner before the birth to start
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another relationship. It was a pattern that would repeat itself.
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He has a total of six children with four different women,
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but none of those relationships seemed to stick around. It
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was always there, gone, often with the women not really
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knowing a great deal about him.
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He doesn't manage to hold down a relationship in the
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same way he doesn't manage to hold down a job.
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and when he doesn't get what he wants, he tends
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to start using violence.
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In 2004, Bridger was charged with battery against his girlfriend,
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and just three years later, he was convicted of assault
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after punching a man in the face. By October 2012,
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Bridger was living alone. So he's now.
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didn't have a job, didn't have the girlfriend with the baby,
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and now got away from his father and mother. So
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it's a triple wham there. My guess is that he
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was feeling extremely low. So it could be that his
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interest for little kids started then.
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He does start to kind of withdraw and spend a
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lot of time on his own, spends a lot of
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time on his laptop computer. And on that computer, there
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are images of children in the local community who are
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known to him. There are pictures of child abuse imagery
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on his laptop. He's pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable
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and what's not acceptable, of what's legal and what's illegal,
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and it's all becoming incredibly blurred.
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Just a few miles across town from Mark Bridger's cottage,
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five-year-old April Jones could often be seen playing on the
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street in front of her family home.
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April's character is really bubbly, really happy, constantly smiling, constantly laughing.
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So if you're ever feeling.
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Sad or down, she'd basically be there and she'd make
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you laugh in an instant.
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And she's got, like, a really contagious smile.
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Like, you just see her smile, so you'd want to smile.
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She's just a happy, fun, bubbly little girl.
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April's bike was a constant companion. For a young girl
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who had cerebral palsy, she didn't let... her disability slow
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her down.
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We taught her to ride a bike from a young age,
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so she'd be on a bike constantly, so she'd never,
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ever be without a bike. If she wanted to go
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out or if we were going to go down the
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street to the shop, it was on her bike. You
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couldn't get her to walk, it was on her bike
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and that was that.
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On Monday, October 1st, 2012, the two sisters were together
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at the local swimming pool with their mum, Coral.
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Every Monday, April used to give swimming lessons, so I'd
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always meet mum and April in the lounge centre when
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I got off the bus, take April in to get changed,
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send her into a swimming lesson, and I'd meet her afterwards.
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So she'd finish the swimming lesson, I think it was
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about half an hour, went in, got her changed, come
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back out, she's walking out, Went back home. I went
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to the youth club and I said, I love you,
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I'll see you later, and I'll come take you into
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bed and everything, and I said, I love you back,
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and that was the last time I saw her.
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On the evening of October 1st, 2012, five-year-old April Jones
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was playing outside the front of her family home on
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the Brinegog Estate in Marhankleth, Mid Wales. April's mum and dad,
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Coral and Paul, had just returned from a parents' evening
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at the local school.
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It was still light that day, so I wanted to
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let April out a little bit longer because of the
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good school report. And there was three of their friends,
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and her and her other friend cycled their other friend
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back home, and then it was just her and her.
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Friend, they were coming back.
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At around 7.20pm, Coral grew concerned that her daughter had
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been out a little too long. She sent April's brother
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out to look for her.
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And then Harley came running back with the bike. saying
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she's gone, she's not there, she's been taken, and then
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that's when it kind of all escalated.
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Hi, police emergency. My dog's been kidnapped. You're... Hang on.
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Can you speak to me?
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Hello.
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And what makes you think the dog has been kidnapped?
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Well, apparently, she's gone off in a car with somebody.
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Somebody's picked her up in a car or something.
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OK, what's the name of the child that's gone missing?
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April Jones.
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How old is she?
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Five.
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Detective Superintendent Reg Bevan was part of the investigation team.
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When the call first comes in, it's a crime in action,
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in effect. So April's mum makes the initial call to
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say that her daughter's gone off in a vehicle. That
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is treated as an abduction, kidnap. And the initial response
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is very much to secure the area, try to identify
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the last person to see her and identifying people who
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were in the area at the time.
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Detectives immediately questioned April's young friends who'd seen her get
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into a car with a stranger.
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They gave this basic description of a small front and
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a large rear to a vehicle and they couldn't be
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more specific. But these are children, young children. But it
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was a key piece of evidence, particularly when they talk
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about how she got into the right-hand side, and they
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were quite sure of that.
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I think the real crucial detail that they were able
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to drill down very, very quickly was that April may
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have got into what would ordinarily appear to be the
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driver's side, which indicated perhaps that it was a left-hand
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drive vehicle. I think that was very, very quickly seized
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upon as something that was unusual, something that could perhaps
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be decisive in the investigation, because other than that, initially,
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00:13:36.570 --> 00:13:38.860
there didn't seem to be a great deal for the
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00:13:38.909 --> 00:13:43.740
police to go on, because she'd been seized very, very quickly, very,
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00:13:43.779 --> 00:13:46.080
very discreetly, with only children as witnesses.
248
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Meanwhile, the local community in Mahankleth rallied round the Jones
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00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:54.889
family and assisted the police in their search for April.
250
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News of her disappearance quickly spread on social media.
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Mahankleth is such a small town, you just wouldn't think
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of it.
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00:14:02.990 --> 00:14:04.929
I think we have a population of about Two and
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00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:06.590
a half thousand, maybe a bit more.
255
00:14:06.610 --> 00:14:07.590
Maybe a bit less.
256
00:14:07.909 --> 00:14:09.789
Five, six, seven.
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00:14:10.029 --> 00:14:10.549
The amount of.
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People that came out of the houses and just started searching,
259
00:14:13.389 --> 00:14:16.830
of all sort of ages, all sorts of ages, it
260
00:14:16.889 --> 00:14:19.429
was just incredible to even see. Like, they've all kind
261
00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:20.950
of come out just to look for my little sister.
262
00:14:21.909 --> 00:14:25.090
And it's kind of breathtaking in a way to see
263
00:14:25.129 --> 00:14:27.669
the amount of people and how close Mach is, how
264
00:14:27.690 --> 00:14:28.629
close the community is.
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00:14:29.110 --> 00:14:31.850
From the very first day, I think the police were
266
00:14:31.929 --> 00:14:35.149
using the word unprecedented. in terms of the scale of
267
00:14:35.169 --> 00:14:38.389
the search. And that was certainly true. I remember arriving
268
00:14:38.429 --> 00:14:42.450
in Macuntheth and immediately hearing the constant swashing of rotor blades,
269
00:14:43.029 --> 00:14:46.409
seeing boat teams coming in from mountain rescue, seeing cavers.
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00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:52.309
Every conceivable emergency service, every conceivable specialism was there very,
271
00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:55.779
very quickly. And then you had the public element of
272
00:14:55.799 --> 00:14:59.820
the search, where people were splitting into small teams, dividing
273
00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:02.049
up an area on a map and going out. and
274
00:15:02.110 --> 00:15:05.549
fanning out and covering what area they could. People at
275
00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:08.379
the most rudimentary level going out with torches and calling
276
00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:12.720
April's name. So you had an unprecedented police search involving,
277
00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:14.980
I think, in the end, dozens and dozens of forces
278
00:15:15.419 --> 00:15:17.200
covering dozens and dozens of square kilometres.
279
00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:22.450
Despite an exhaustive search by police and volunteers stretching into
280
00:15:22.490 --> 00:15:26.490
the early hours, April could not be found. The small
281
00:15:26.549 --> 00:15:27.950
town was in shock.
282
00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:32.480
I remember one of the people I spoke to said
283
00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:36.080
it can't have been somebody from the area because we
284
00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:37.919
all know one another, we all trust one another.
285
00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:42.299
It almost defies belief when that sort of thing happens
286
00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:46.259
in a small rural community because somehow you immediately think
287
00:15:46.299 --> 00:15:50.669
that everybody knows everybody else's business and that it's impossible.
288
00:15:51.230 --> 00:15:53.830
How can a child disappear into thin air in a
289
00:15:53.909 --> 00:15:58.269
tiny Welsh village in which everybody pretty much knows everybody else?
290
00:16:00.129 --> 00:16:03.090
But that's the The devil in plain sight, isn't it?
291
00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:08.080
Witness reports of a distinctive blue Land Rover on the
292
00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:11.710
Briney Gog estate gave the police a crucial lead in
293
00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:12.809
their investigation.
294
00:16:13.409 --> 00:16:16.250
It was said on the night that she got into
295
00:16:16.309 --> 00:16:20.590
a car that was on the wrong side, and straightaway,
296
00:16:21.149 --> 00:16:22.990
everyone knew we were looking for a left-hand drive, and
297
00:16:23.490 --> 00:16:26.330
there's only one person in Mahintleth who had a left-hand drive,
298
00:16:26.350 --> 00:16:30.610
and that was Mark Bridger. Where we used to live,
299
00:16:30.769 --> 00:16:33.129
he kind of lived, like, at the end, sort of
300
00:16:33.669 --> 00:16:37.090
just a bit further on. And he was kind of, oh, hiya,
301
00:16:37.129 --> 00:16:38.490
you all right, in the street sort of thing.
302
00:16:38.629 --> 00:16:41.110
I didn't know his name. I just knew his face.
303
00:16:41.509 --> 00:16:43.509
He was always in combat trousers, always.
304
00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.440
Mark Bridger was named by some of the residents living
305
00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.019
locally in the house to house investigation. And then once
306
00:16:52.100 --> 00:16:56.899
he's been named, And when you compare the description given
307
00:16:56.980 --> 00:17:00.720
by the children of the vehicle that April Jones got into,
308
00:17:01.879 --> 00:17:03.679
and then some work that we were able to do
309
00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:06.319
behind the scenes with the analysts, we were able to
310
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:09.380
link a land rover discovery to Mark Bridger, and then
311
00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:11.779
all of a sudden things start to fall into place.
312
00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:19.880
The following morning, Tuesday, October the 2nd, the small market
313
00:17:19.940 --> 00:17:25.210
town of Mahankleth awoke to a media swarm. April had
314
00:17:25.269 --> 00:17:27.460
now been missing for 12 hours.
315
00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:31.880
I've been saying this from the very beginning, we still
316
00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:37.769
have hope. It was a fast-moving, very emotional place. People
317
00:17:37.809 --> 00:17:42.309
were desperate, people were filled with hope and people were
318
00:17:42.690 --> 00:17:46.329
galvanised to go out there and to find someone. And
319
00:17:46.349 --> 00:17:49.650
those people that were there, generally beyond perhaps knowing the
320
00:17:49.670 --> 00:17:52.200
family or knowing the area or knowing them in passing,
321
00:17:52.950 --> 00:17:55.369
had no personal connection in a lot of cases. They
322
00:17:55.390 --> 00:17:57.910
wanted to go out and find a vulnerable child, and
323
00:17:57.950 --> 00:18:01.430
there was lots and lots of hope and just sheer determination,
324
00:18:01.549 --> 00:18:05.130
people saying, I can't sleep, I can't go home, I
325
00:18:05.170 --> 00:18:07.710
can't rest, I can't do anything while I know that
326
00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:10.880
somebody is out there, and that was incredibly stark and
327
00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:11.740
incredibly moving.
328
00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:16.680
The police were desperate to find Mark Bridger, and they
329
00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:21.559
soon had a major breakthrough. His distinctive blue Land Rover
330
00:18:21.819 --> 00:18:25.529
had been found at a local garage. It had been
331
00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:27.650
dropped off that same morning.
332
00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:32.650
They didn't really disclose too much about his demeanour other
333
00:18:32.670 --> 00:18:35.150
than he dropped it off, suggesting it had been involved
334
00:18:35.190 --> 00:18:38.099
in an accident, and they were quite happy to have
335
00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:39.920
a look at it. And from what they'd seen, it
336
00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:42.079
didn't appear to have been involved in any kind of
337
00:18:42.220 --> 00:18:42.740
road accident.
338
00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:47.750
The police continued their manhunt. They hoped that finding Bridger
339
00:18:48.029 --> 00:18:50.349
would lead them directly to April.
340
00:18:51.410 --> 00:18:54.069
We were still hoping that she'd be alive, so it
341
00:18:54.109 --> 00:18:56.829
was very much speeders of the essence, so you had
342
00:18:56.849 --> 00:18:59.420
to ensure that you were doing as much as you could,
343
00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.519
as quickly as you could, in an effort to identify
344
00:19:02.539 --> 00:19:03.119
where she was.
345
00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:07.319
Having dropped off his car the morning after April's disappearance,
346
00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:11.289
Bridger met a search party looking for the five-year-old. He
347
00:19:11.329 --> 00:19:13.009
was hiding in plain sight.
348
00:19:13.579 --> 00:19:17.049
Mark Bridger had effectively stumbled upon a search party and
349
00:19:17.220 --> 00:19:18.940
wished them good luck and claimed to have been out
350
00:19:19.289 --> 00:19:22.910
searching all night, which was, when you reflect on that, deeply,
351
00:19:23.430 --> 00:19:25.829
deeply troubling, deeply shocking.
352
00:19:26.289 --> 00:19:30.589
Despite it being a small town, detectives had discovered multiple
353
00:19:30.609 --> 00:19:35.089
addresses linked to Bridger, whose transient lifestyle had made finding
354
00:19:35.130 --> 00:19:36.470
him extremely difficult.
355
00:19:37.349 --> 00:19:40.109
We had some previous addresses that we knew he'd lived
356
00:19:40.230 --> 00:19:43.009
at or we may still be living at. And we
357
00:19:43.029 --> 00:19:46.039
were sending teams of officers around to those addresses to
358
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:49.210
try to locate April. And on some occasions, there was
359
00:19:49.250 --> 00:19:53.019
no answer. We were forcing entry into these properties with
360
00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:55.940
quickly searching in a hope to finding her, so it
361
00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:01.619
was a very fast-paced, fast-moving investigation to try to locate him.
362
00:20:02.119 --> 00:20:05.400
As the search for April entered its 19th hour, her
363
00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.740
older sister Jasmine began to fear the worst.
364
00:20:09.859 --> 00:20:11.150
I knew we were never going to get her back alive.
365
00:20:11.619 --> 00:20:14.619
Something in me just said, she's not going to come
366
00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:15.119
home alive.
367
00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:23.259
By 3pm on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012, five-year-old April Jones
368
00:20:23.319 --> 00:20:27.259
had been missing for almost 20 hours. The number one
369
00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:32.380
suspect in her abduction was 46-year-old Mark Bridger. April had
370
00:20:32.420 --> 00:20:37.640
been seen getting into his car the previous evening. the
371
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.680
police had finally traced Bridger to a cottage called Mount
372
00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:45.960
Pleasant on the outskirts of Mahancliffe. They forced their way
373
00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:47.079
through the door.
374
00:20:48.869 --> 00:20:51.690
So when the first officers arrive at Bridger's home, fire
375
00:20:51.750 --> 00:20:54.450
is lit. It is very hot in there. There is
376
00:20:54.529 --> 00:21:00.670
a strong smell of detergent, bleach, cleaning fluid. And the
377
00:21:00.769 --> 00:21:06.059
initial forensic examination then starts at that point, but it's clearly...
378
00:21:06.210 --> 00:21:09.369
looking more and more suspicious that something has happened at
379
00:21:09.410 --> 00:21:09.950
that address.
380
00:21:10.650 --> 00:21:14.789
Just half an hour later, at 3.30pm, Mark Bridger was
381
00:21:14.829 --> 00:21:19.160
spotted by a patrol car on the A487 road, heading
382
00:21:19.259 --> 00:21:21.380
back into Marhancliffe on foot.
383
00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:25.500
So when he is seen walking down the road, officers
384
00:21:25.539 --> 00:21:28.200
pull up alongside him and speak to him, confirm that
385
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.970
it is Mark Bridger, and he immediately makes a disclosure
386
00:21:32.009 --> 00:21:34.269
to the officers that April is dead and that he's
387
00:21:34.349 --> 00:21:34.900
run over her.
388
00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:40.339
I think Mark Bridges' selfishness really did come out when
389
00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:42.769
he was picked up by the police and he said
390
00:21:42.789 --> 00:21:45.609
to them, I need to talk. And the police said, OK,
391
00:21:45.630 --> 00:21:47.809
but can you wait until we get to the station?
392
00:21:48.309 --> 00:21:48.809
And he didn't.
393
00:21:49.049 --> 00:21:52.789
He just proceeded to basically engage in this lengthy monologue
394
00:21:52.950 --> 00:21:56.119
about what had gone on, about how he felt. And
395
00:21:56.150 --> 00:21:58.859
basically when he was saying, I need to talk, he
396
00:21:58.900 --> 00:22:01.099
wasn't just saying that, he was saying, you need to
397
00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:03.700
listen to me. It was another way of him trying
398
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.339
to exert control over other people. It's something he's always
399
00:22:06.380 --> 00:22:07.380
doing all of the time.
400
00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:10.319
In the police car on the way to the station,
401
00:22:10.700 --> 00:22:14.480
Bridger continued to tell officers his side of the story.
402
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.440
He gave a very strange, fantastical description of what had
403
00:22:19.579 --> 00:22:22.559
really happened to April. I ran over her with my
404
00:22:22.619 --> 00:22:25.450
Land Rover and she was underneath the wheels and I
405
00:22:25.490 --> 00:22:28.369
didn't know what to do. And there was no pulse
406
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:33.569
and no sign, and she wasn't moving. And, well, any
407
00:22:33.670 --> 00:22:37.549
normal person surely would have rung the police or the hospital, 999,
408
00:22:37.529 --> 00:22:40.970
at that instant, wouldn't they? Well, you see, I didn't know,
409
00:22:40.990 --> 00:22:42.130
and I didn't mean to. I mean, I was going
410
00:22:42.150 --> 00:22:47.670
to just lean her up against something. Well, she wasn't
411
00:22:47.690 --> 00:22:48.630
leaned up against something.
412
00:22:48.670 --> 00:22:49.309
She disappeared.
413
00:22:50.430 --> 00:22:52.509
He created the stories in his head. Maybe he even
414
00:22:52.549 --> 00:22:55.349
believed it himself, you know. Some people will do, some
415
00:22:55.369 --> 00:22:58.650
people won't. They are so desperate to be accepted by
416
00:22:58.769 --> 00:23:02.869
others and in life that they will create the stories
417
00:23:02.950 --> 00:23:05.569
and they are so into it and so desperate that
418
00:23:05.589 --> 00:23:08.490
they will believe those stories themselves. And that's where you
419
00:23:08.529 --> 00:23:12.730
get the compulsive liars. So he might have even believed himself. Because, yeah,
420
00:23:12.789 --> 00:23:15.269
he is actually telling those stories to the police.
421
00:23:16.009 --> 00:23:19.430
He seems to think that what's happened is quite blurry,
422
00:23:19.450 --> 00:23:22.309
but what he does remember is that he drove off
423
00:23:22.410 --> 00:23:25.490
with her body somewhere. But after that, he says, It's
424
00:23:25.549 --> 00:23:27.509
all blank. I can't remember what happened.
425
00:23:28.250 --> 00:23:32.589
Bridger's bizarre account of events led detectives to believe he
426
00:23:32.650 --> 00:23:37.470
might be lying and that April may still be alive somewhere.
427
00:23:38.140 --> 00:23:42.079
So although when Mark Bridger's first detained, he says that
428
00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:45.759
he's killed her, he's run over her, we obviously hadn't
429
00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.180
found her body, so there's still some hope that you
430
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.869
may be able to find her alive. The thrust of
431
00:23:52.269 --> 00:23:55.450
searching as many places as possible and continuing to search
432
00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:57.079
the countryside didn't stop.
433
00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:03.599
The following day, the 3rd of October, 2012, April's mother,
434
00:24:03.740 --> 00:24:07.779
Coral Jones, appeared in front of the world's press. Her
435
00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.069
daughter had been missing for over 36 hours.
436
00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:15.569
And so the atmosphere in the room awaiting that was
437
00:24:16.009 --> 00:24:18.690
quite extraordinary. And when the door opened, there was the
438
00:24:18.890 --> 00:24:24.690
briefest sense, I remember even now, of complete silence, complete shock,
439
00:24:25.349 --> 00:24:31.539
complete captivation almost. And as Coral walked into the room,
440
00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:34.960
then obviously the noise began, the shutters of the cameras
441
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.359
began to click. To see up close, merely a few
442
00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:43.299
feet away, somebody going through what Coral and her family
443
00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:46.140
were going through was astonishingly painful.
444
00:24:47.650 --> 00:24:52.930
It's been 36 hours since April was taken from us.
445
00:24:54.619 --> 00:24:58.440
There must be someone out there who knows where she
446
00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:03.839
is and can help the police find her. We are
447
00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:10.930
desperate for any news. April is only five years old. Please,
448
00:25:11.569 --> 00:25:13.730
please help find her.
449
00:25:14.380 --> 00:25:17.690
When you see firsthand the impact it has on the family,
450
00:25:17.710 --> 00:25:21.269
you can only imagine what Carl and the rest of
451
00:25:21.309 --> 00:25:24.390
the family have gone through. But it's when you see
452
00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:26.470
them face to face and you're sitting next to them
453
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.339
in some of those press conferences, it is heartbreaking. And,
454
00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.880
you know, it just makes you more resolved to try
455
00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:32.740
to do all you can.
456
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:37.859
But as police forensic teams began an intricate search at
457
00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:42.200
Bridger's home, it soon became clear that April Jones would
458
00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:44.299
never be found alive.
459
00:25:47.539 --> 00:25:52.029
We do know from the detailed forensic examination of his
460
00:25:52.089 --> 00:25:56.970
home is that she probably died there. We found her
461
00:25:57.029 --> 00:26:01.430
blood at that address, significant amounts of her blood. Clearly, he'd...
462
00:26:01.859 --> 00:26:04.119
attempted to clean the place, which is part of the
463
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:08.039
reason the initial officers found that overwhelming smell of bleach.
464
00:26:08.059 --> 00:26:11.059
He'd tried to clean up several parts of the house.
465
00:26:11.099 --> 00:26:13.500
There was blood in the lounge and in the bathrooms.
466
00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:18.140
And the wood burner was lit, we believe, because he
467
00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:20.869
was looking to dispose of incriminating evidence.
468
00:26:21.849 --> 00:26:25.430
From a policing and prosecution perspective, the key piece of
469
00:26:25.470 --> 00:26:28.309
evidence in a murder inquiry is almost certainly going to
470
00:26:28.349 --> 00:26:31.589
be having a body, and they didn't have that in
471
00:26:32.609 --> 00:26:36.210
So they were very, very reliant on not just on
472
00:26:36.450 --> 00:26:39.440
the human witnesses that they had, which were in many
473
00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:43.259
cases friends of April's who'd seen the abduction take place,
474
00:26:43.380 --> 00:26:48.460
but incredibly up-to-date forensic technology which enabled them to pinpoint
475
00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:50.920
fragments of bone found in the wood burn at Mark
476
00:26:50.940 --> 00:26:51.549
Bridges' house.
477
00:26:52.329 --> 00:26:54.569
Although there was bone, it was burned to such a
478
00:26:54.609 --> 00:26:57.829
degree that we weren't able to match it forensically through
479
00:26:57.849 --> 00:27:01.880
any DNA profiles. albeit we know it is human from
480
00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:05.240
the pathologist and the scientists that examined it subsequently.
481
00:27:05.819 --> 00:27:10.039
Forensic teams also found a burnt boning knife in Bridger's home.
482
00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:15.180
The disturbing discovery at Mount Pleasant Cottage shocked the entire community.
483
00:27:16.900 --> 00:27:19.720
There almost certainly was no longer any chance of a
484
00:27:19.740 --> 00:27:22.339
happy ending to this story, a positive outcome of April
485
00:27:22.380 --> 00:27:27.279
coming home to her family. And that was very, very powerful.
486
00:27:27.779 --> 00:27:32.160
And when you saw... the tiredness that people understandably felt, two,
487
00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:35.440
three days of hard working, searching, not going to sleep,
488
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:38.660
to have everything that they'd worked for crushed in that
489
00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:43.039
way was deeply, deeply dispiriting for everybody. And it was
490
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:47.220
clear quite quickly that there needed to be then that
491
00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:49.630
further little bit of perspective and of rowing back a
492
00:27:49.650 --> 00:27:52.269
little bit from the media and from everybody that was
493
00:27:52.309 --> 00:27:54.210
there just to give people, not just the family, but
494
00:27:54.230 --> 00:27:55.990
the people in the town that had been so affected,
495
00:27:56.549 --> 00:27:58.890
that little bit of space and that little bit of
496
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.079
to grieve and to process everything that had happened.
497
00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:07.259
For a while, they were searching for April and they
498
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:09.319
were hoping she'd come back alive. And I think it
499
00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:11.640
was a couple of days later or something or other
500
00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:14.480
that it turned into a search for the body. And
501
00:28:15.660 --> 00:28:18.519
I kind of knew that it must have been some
502
00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:21.880
horrific crime for them to search a body. And then
503
00:28:22.900 --> 00:28:25.200
in the sort of town we live in where there's
504
00:28:25.299 --> 00:28:29.119
rivers flowing through, there's forestry everywhere, I kind of knew
505
00:28:29.180 --> 00:28:31.480
it must have been something quite bad, otherwise you kind
506
00:28:31.500 --> 00:28:34.319
of would have found a child's body around this sort
507
00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:35.299
of area straightaway.
508
00:28:39.220 --> 00:28:44.430
After three days of questioning, on October 5th, 2012, Mark
509
00:28:44.470 --> 00:28:49.369
Bridger was arrested on suspicion of murder. But the 46-year-old
510
00:28:49.730 --> 00:28:51.809
continued to protest his innocence.
511
00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:55.259
In interview, he's very matter-of-fact in his answers and he
512
00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:58.730
says that he's run over her accidentally and that he
513
00:28:58.750 --> 00:29:00.910
gets out of his vehicle and sees that he's run
514
00:29:00.990 --> 00:29:03.730
over her and he picks her up and he thinks,
515
00:29:03.910 --> 00:29:07.690
believes she's dead. He does try resuscitating her. But at
516
00:29:07.769 --> 00:29:11.130
each stage, when you're then able to rebut some of
517
00:29:11.230 --> 00:29:14.319
his story by saying, well, there's no forensic evidence to
518
00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:16.900
show that she's come to any harm in your vehicle,
519
00:29:17.539 --> 00:29:22.339
albeit we could put her inside the vehicle with fingerprints...
520
00:29:22.819 --> 00:29:25.380
He would always suggest, well, she wasn't bleeding, so when
521
00:29:25.420 --> 00:29:27.099
you'd ask him, well, how do you know that she's
522
00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:29.599
dead then? You know, he was saying, well, I knew
523
00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:32.220
she was dead. His story didn't make sense.
524
00:29:32.819 --> 00:29:36.730
The reason why people hold back information about murder can
525
00:29:36.769 --> 00:29:39.890
vary from one case to the next, but for me, the...
526
00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:43.960
the central element is often control. When somebody has been
527
00:29:43.980 --> 00:29:46.900
convicted of murder, when somebody has been sentenced to a
528
00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:50.730
very lengthy term in prison, they don't have control over
529
00:29:50.789 --> 00:29:52.849
many things at all. The one thing that they do
530
00:29:52.910 --> 00:29:56.490
have control over is the knowledge of what happened, of
531
00:29:56.549 --> 00:29:59.190
what they did to their victim, of where their victim is,
532
00:29:59.579 --> 00:30:02.119
And often that's something that people won't want to part
533
00:30:02.140 --> 00:30:03.039
with very easily.
534
00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:06.980
Nothing that he said we could back up with any
535
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:11.799
evidence of forensic recoveries. In fact, everything led quite the contrary.
536
00:30:12.279 --> 00:30:16.160
He had abducted April from outside near to her home
537
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:20.299
and had driven her back to his house immediately and
538
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:24.039
she probably met her end very soon after that.
539
00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:27.640
He could have been curbing it for a long time
540
00:30:28.170 --> 00:30:31.190
But on that day, he overpowered him, and once she
541
00:30:31.230 --> 00:30:33.019
was in the car, then that was it. Then he
542
00:30:33.059 --> 00:30:34.859
goes into a different state of mind, and then he
543
00:30:34.900 --> 00:30:37.019
can't stop it anymore. It will be very hard for
544
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:37.519
him to stop.
545
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:42.140
The following day, October 6th, Mark Bridger was charged with
546
00:30:42.180 --> 00:30:45.759
the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones.
547
00:30:47.500 --> 00:30:49.559
It's an absolute shock with it, and you don't know
548
00:30:49.619 --> 00:30:53.220
what to think. And then you start, in your mind, questioning,
549
00:30:53.269 --> 00:30:54.289
do you really know.
550
00:30:54.089 --> 00:30:54.789
Someone, you know?
551
00:30:55.609 --> 00:30:57.990
You could have known this person, like, 15, 20 years.
552
00:30:59.730 --> 00:31:02.170
But then you come to the fact of, do you
553
00:31:02.210 --> 00:31:02.869
really know them?
554
00:31:04.130 --> 00:31:08.430
And so the shock to the community and, of course,
555
00:31:08.490 --> 00:31:13.029
to April's parents to realise that not only were they
556
00:31:13.089 --> 00:31:17.150
living with, but they knew the man who'd abducted their
557
00:31:17.190 --> 00:31:18.920
daughter is even more terrifying.
558
00:31:20.099 --> 00:31:24.359
The search for April's body continued for six months until
559
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:29.180
the police called it off in April 2013. The fact
560
00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:32.230
that no body was found didn't alter the course of
561
00:31:32.250 --> 00:31:33.170
the investigation.
562
00:31:33.190 --> 00:31:35.650
You know, we're still treating it as a murder. There's
563
00:31:35.690 --> 00:31:38.869
a huge impact on the family, obviously, but the search
564
00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:42.390
continued for months and months afterwards because we had to
565
00:31:42.430 --> 00:31:46.160
be sure in that area that we'd searched everywhere we
566
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:50.900
possibly could. in an effort to find her. So although
567
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:56.480
we're confident that she probably died in his house, what
568
00:31:56.500 --> 00:31:59.200
he's done with the body after that, only he knows.
569
00:32:00.420 --> 00:32:05.140
On April 29, 2013, the trial of Mark Bridger began
570
00:32:05.180 --> 00:32:09.099
at Mould Crown Court. The 47-year-old was charged with the
571
00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:14.759
abduction and murder of 5-year-old schoolgirl April Jones. Seven months
572
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:18.460
after her disappearance, her body had still not been found.
573
00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.480
There was real hope that the truth of what happened
574
00:32:21.539 --> 00:32:24.289
to her would emerge during proceedings.
575
00:32:28.190 --> 00:32:29.990
I think from the very first moment that Mark Bridger
576
00:32:30.029 --> 00:32:33.990
appeared in court, he was a pathetic figure, somebody that
577
00:32:34.049 --> 00:32:36.299
appeared to be feeling sorry for himself, that almost couldn't
578
00:32:36.930 --> 00:32:39.960
realize the gravity of the situation in which he found himself,
579
00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:44.789
as though he somehow was the victim. when absolutely he wasn't.
580
00:32:45.170 --> 00:32:47.390
He was the offender. He was the person that had
581
00:32:47.430 --> 00:32:49.470
done this barbaric, inhuman thing.
582
00:32:50.450 --> 00:32:52.250
He just kind of hung his head in shame.
583
00:32:53.130 --> 00:32:55.549
He never once looked over, ever. Like, not even a
584
00:32:55.809 --> 00:32:58.130
slight glance of his eyes. Didn't move his head, just
585
00:32:58.150 --> 00:33:00.369
kind of hung his head in shame.
586
00:33:01.490 --> 00:33:04.829
Bridger pleaded not guilty. He was sticking to the same
587
00:33:04.890 --> 00:33:09.009
story he told police back in October 2012, claiming that
588
00:33:09.109 --> 00:33:11.029
April's death was an accident.
589
00:33:11.569 --> 00:33:15.190
Mark Bridger used this cloak of amnesia almost to say
590
00:33:15.230 --> 00:33:19.869
that he couldn't account for what had happened. He accepted
591
00:33:19.890 --> 00:33:25.029
that he was behind April's death but not that he
592
00:33:25.470 --> 00:33:27.930
intended in some way to kill her and it concocted
593
00:33:27.970 --> 00:33:31.650
this fanciful story about potentially having knocked her over with
594
00:33:31.690 --> 00:33:34.329
his car, something that was never borne out in any
595
00:33:34.369 --> 00:33:38.440
of the evidence. Somehow claiming that he then couldn't recall
596
00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:41.180
what he'd done with her body, that he was drinking
597
00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:44.680
lots and that the whole thing could have been This
598
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:47.779
was someone that was prepared to go as low as
599
00:33:47.819 --> 00:33:50.640
they possibly could, desperately trying to save their own skin
600
00:33:51.140 --> 00:33:53.200
in view of all evidence to the contrary.
601
00:33:53.549 --> 00:33:56.690
So, at the beginning, I was kind of shocked, like, oh,
602
00:33:56.730 --> 00:33:59.890
he'd hit her off the bike. But she knows well,
603
00:34:00.049 --> 00:34:02.150
too well, not to go near the road when there's
604
00:34:02.170 --> 00:34:05.609
a car. She knows this really well and she knows
605
00:34:05.650 --> 00:34:06.910
to look left and right and everything.
606
00:34:06.990 --> 00:34:08.699
We've always, always taught her from a young age.
607
00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:11.960
And then he started saying he panicked and he just,
608
00:34:12.389 --> 00:34:14.969
drove off with her, and you'd kind of... He's got
609
00:34:15.010 --> 00:34:17.769
kids around her age, around April's age, so you kind
610
00:34:17.789 --> 00:34:20.489
of think, you wouldn't panic. You'd kind of, in a sense,
611
00:34:20.530 --> 00:34:23.920
as a parent, you'd know what to do. So towards
612
00:34:23.940 --> 00:34:25.940
the end of it, you're just like, oh, shut up.
613
00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:30.719
Just shut up, really. You're just making yourself look a fool.
614
00:34:31.380 --> 00:34:35.559
During the trial, police helicopter footage emerged from the morning
615
00:34:35.780 --> 00:34:41.409
after April's abduction. It showed a calm-looking Bridger, He's.
616
00:34:41.309 --> 00:34:44.500
Seen kind of casually out walking his dog as if
617
00:34:44.739 --> 00:34:47.400
nothing had happened. And I think what we've got here
618
00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:50.539
is somebody who's struggling to figure out what is the
619
00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:53.719
appropriate way to behave here? What are people going to
620
00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:55.780
be looking out for? What are they going to be
621
00:34:55.929 --> 00:34:57.010
expecting to see?
622
00:34:57.550 --> 00:35:00.010
Most normal people would look up at the helicopter and
623
00:35:00.030 --> 00:35:02.130
wonder what was going on. He knew exactly what was
624
00:35:02.150 --> 00:35:05.329
going on. He knew exactly what he'd done with April.
625
00:35:05.650 --> 00:35:08.380
And at that stage, you know, the net was closing
626
00:35:08.429 --> 00:35:10.880
in on him and he was... He was trying to
627
00:35:10.900 --> 00:35:11.420
blend in.
628
00:35:11.980 --> 00:35:15.119
On the 15th of May, the jury were shown evidence
629
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:19.050
from Mark Bridger's laptop. It was a key moment in
630
00:35:19.090 --> 00:35:19.590
the trial.
631
00:35:20.030 --> 00:35:24.949
Bridger had begun to assemble a collection of particularly nasty
632
00:35:24.989 --> 00:35:31.010
child pornography, as well as photographs of local children, including
633
00:35:31.630 --> 00:35:36.099
April and her elder sister. At his trial... The prosecution
634
00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:39.800
made a considerable play of the fact that these images
635
00:35:39.900 --> 00:35:43.170
were on his computer and suggested that he may not
636
00:35:43.210 --> 00:35:48.489
have been seeking specifically to groom April. It could have
637
00:35:48.510 --> 00:35:50.170
been another member of the family or another of the
638
00:35:50.210 --> 00:35:54.539
girls that were on his computer. But that he was
639
00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:58.199
certainly seeking to groom someone, some young girl.
640
00:35:59.090 --> 00:36:01.530
There are two types of people or offenders that would
641
00:36:01.550 --> 00:36:04.750
look at different kinds of things on the internet. Pornography,
642
00:36:04.769 --> 00:36:07.510
for example. The first type is the people who will
643
00:36:07.630 --> 00:36:11.710
be satisfied by the photographs, by the films, by reading
644
00:36:11.789 --> 00:36:14.489
stories maybe. But at the end of it, that's it.
645
00:36:14.630 --> 00:36:17.610
It's like, that's good enough. They turn off the computer
646
00:36:17.690 --> 00:36:20.389
and they forget about it. But there are certain other types,
647
00:36:20.489 --> 00:36:24.719
and Bridger falls into this category, is that at the end,
648
00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:25.659
that is not enough.
649
00:36:26.599 --> 00:36:30.739
He'd also been looking at website reports of previous child
650
00:36:30.780 --> 00:36:34.000
abductions and he's starting to build a picture now of
651
00:36:34.019 --> 00:36:39.739
a paedophile, a dangerous, evil man who, for whatever reason,
652
00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:45.239
has gone from minor offending and tipped over into the
653
00:36:45.300 --> 00:36:46.320
most serious crime.
654
00:36:47.070 --> 00:36:51.090
On May the 30th, 2013, the jury took just four
655
00:36:51.130 --> 00:36:56.690
hours to unanimously find Mark Bridger guilty of murdering April Jones.
656
00:36:57.510 --> 00:37:02.070
Judge Mr. Justice Griffith Williams sentenced him to life imprisonment
657
00:37:02.349 --> 00:37:05.909
with a whole life order. He was immediately sent to
658
00:37:05.969 --> 00:37:09.230
Wakefield Prison. He will never be free again.
659
00:37:09.250 --> 00:37:13.250
For them to turn around and say life and never
660
00:37:13.269 --> 00:37:17.340
to be released from prison is like, wow. It's just,
661
00:37:18.349 --> 00:37:22.590
you can't explain the feeling of it because it's good
662
00:37:22.610 --> 00:37:25.369
that he's never going to be released from prison and
663
00:37:25.730 --> 00:37:27.250
he's never going to be able to hurt anyone again.
664
00:37:28.030 --> 00:37:30.530
Well, when Bridger was sentenced, the judge referred to him
665
00:37:30.590 --> 00:37:33.300
as a pathological liar and a paedophile and I think
666
00:37:33.360 --> 00:37:36.639
both of those descriptions are accurate. Mark Bridger was somebody
667
00:37:36.659 --> 00:37:39.340
who was very comfortable in a lie. He would lie
668
00:37:39.400 --> 00:37:42.059
as easily as he would breathe and if you look
669
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:44.760
at some of his behaviour in the final months.
670
00:37:44.500 --> 00:37:45.980
Before April's death.
671
00:37:46.519 --> 00:37:50.980
He was collecting images of children on his laptop. He
672
00:37:51.019 --> 00:37:54.780
was engaging in behaviour that was incredibly bizarre. So he
673
00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:57.329
was a pathological liar, he was a paedophile, he was
674
00:37:57.369 --> 00:37:58.449
a very dangerous man.
675
00:37:59.550 --> 00:38:02.889
The murder of April Jones ruined the lives of not
676
00:38:02.969 --> 00:38:05.869
just her family, but an entire community.
677
00:38:06.730 --> 00:38:10.750
The Jones family were very clearly a respectable family, people
678
00:38:10.769 --> 00:38:13.489
that were well-known in their community, and there was that
679
00:38:13.989 --> 00:38:18.110
shock element. This could be anyone's child. It wasn't somebody
680
00:38:18.150 --> 00:38:20.989
that was put in harm's way. It was a girl
681
00:38:21.010 --> 00:38:24.050
that was playing on her bike outside her home with
682
00:38:24.090 --> 00:38:27.400
her parents' blessing, like she would every day. They would
683
00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:29.360
call her in for a dinner. She would sit at
684
00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:31.260
home and tell them about her day at school and
685
00:38:31.320 --> 00:38:34.559
how well she was doing. Everyone can identify with that,
686
00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:39.099
whether they have children or not. It's a brutal thing
687
00:38:39.139 --> 00:38:43.179
that rips out a family's heart and that really, really
688
00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:43.920
touches people.
689
00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:49.789
There was people that we hadn't spoken to who had
690
00:38:50.070 --> 00:38:53.010
little kids around the same age and they were really affected.
691
00:38:53.349 --> 00:38:54.909
On the estate we live, kids.
692
00:38:54.670 --> 00:38:58.179
Were outside all the time playing and then you didn't
693
00:38:58.199 --> 00:38:59.760
see a kid for about two years outside playing.
694
00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:05.480
In a final cruel act, Mark Bridger has never revealed
695
00:39:05.519 --> 00:39:07.780
the location of April's body.
696
00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:10.579
I think the key question for many people in this
697
00:39:10.619 --> 00:39:13.139
case is will Mark Bridger ever return? give up the
698
00:39:13.179 --> 00:39:17.199
information about what happened to April Jones, about where she is,
699
00:39:18.219 --> 00:39:22.090
to enable her parents to basically say goodbye to her properly.
700
00:39:22.610 --> 00:39:25.989
And unfortunately, I don't think he will. I think Mark
701
00:39:26.010 --> 00:39:30.099
Bridger is somebody who will always have self-preservation. as his
702
00:39:30.179 --> 00:39:33.539
number one priority. And he's just simply not going to
703
00:39:33.800 --> 00:39:36.460
put himself in a position where he's got no power left.
704
00:39:37.539 --> 00:39:42.920
It's difficult not getting a body back because when you
705
00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.400
have a body back, you can lay them to rest,
706
00:39:45.420 --> 00:39:46.679
you can say your goodbyes.
707
00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:49.320
But when you've got bone.
708
00:39:49.070 --> 00:39:53.980
Fragments and ash, it's not the same at all because
709
00:39:54.800 --> 00:39:59.199
you can't say your final goodbyes. And Mark Bridges is
710
00:39:59.239 --> 00:40:02.679
such a pathological liar and he believes his own lies.
711
00:40:02.739 --> 00:40:05.440
He believes he's telling the truth that he's never going
712
00:40:05.460 --> 00:40:05.940
to tell you.
713
00:40:06.340 --> 00:40:09.139
He's never going to say what really happened that day,
714
00:40:09.739 --> 00:40:12.579
that evening, and.
715
00:40:12.079 --> 00:40:13.480
What he's done with the body.
716
00:40:13.579 --> 00:40:14.940
And you kind of have to come to terms with
717
00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:17.340
that and you kind of have to accept that You're
718
00:40:17.380 --> 00:40:19.380
never going to be able to fully say goodbye and
719
00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:21.960
you're never going to be able to fully lay April
720
00:40:21.980 --> 00:40:22.460
to rest.
721
00:40:25.699 --> 00:40:32.150
On November 17th, 2014, Jasmine Jones stood alongside her parents
722
00:40:32.789 --> 00:40:36.909
and watched as the probable site of April's murder, Mount
723
00:40:36.969 --> 00:40:40.829
Pleasant Cottage, was bulldozed to the ground.
724
00:40:43.090 --> 00:40:45.699
You've changed. You've completely changed. You're never going to be
725
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:46.300
who you were.
726
00:40:46.809 --> 00:40:48.750
I mean, when I have kids, I could be completely
727
00:40:48.769 --> 00:40:50.110
different to what I thought I was going to be
728
00:40:50.849 --> 00:40:54.150
because of this event. You've just completely changed. You're never
729
00:40:54.170 --> 00:40:56.630
going to be who you were. And the demons you've
730
00:40:56.650 --> 00:40:59.130
had to fight along the way, they've changed you, be
731
00:40:59.150 --> 00:41:01.429
it for the better, be it for the worse. But
732
00:41:02.250 --> 00:41:05.269
the positive thing is we've come out stronger. We've come out,
733
00:41:05.289 --> 00:41:06.510
we've stood together through it all.
734
00:41:06.889 --> 00:41:11.449
Because the community have gathered around and been so positive
735
00:41:11.610 --> 00:41:14.429
in the face of such a grotesque crime, it's not
736
00:41:14.469 --> 00:41:17.409
been something that's been allowed to define them. April Jones
737
00:41:17.469 --> 00:41:20.030
is not remembered for how she died, but for being
738
00:41:20.050 --> 00:41:23.300
a beautiful young girl who was happiest in her community
739
00:41:23.320 --> 00:41:26.019
and in her family. So what happened to her will
740
00:41:26.059 --> 00:41:29.000
always be a part of the history of Macuntheth. That
741
00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:31.639
will never be laid to rest or put to one side.
742
00:41:32.340 --> 00:41:35.269
But the fact that people do not want to be
743
00:41:35.289 --> 00:41:37.449
defined by this, do not want to be remembered purely
744
00:41:37.570 --> 00:41:40.050
as the place where this act of evil happened, will
745
00:41:40.090 --> 00:41:42.110
mean that they can go on and they can grow
746
00:41:42.170 --> 00:41:42.889
and they can develop.
747
00:41:44.269 --> 00:41:48.469
Mark Bridger is a perverted killer who selfishly snatched and
748
00:41:48.550 --> 00:41:53.510
killed an innocent five-year-old for his own gratification. He has
749
00:41:53.610 --> 00:41:58.489
constantly lied and still refuses to admit where April is buried.
750
00:41:59.289 --> 00:42:03.150
Bridger has shown no remorse for his actions or explained
751
00:42:03.190 --> 00:42:06.840
the reasons for the murder. We should forget his name.
752
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:11.849
and instead remember the smiling face of April Jones, the
753
00:42:11.909 --> 00:42:15.159
girl whose life he cruelly took away at such a
754
00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:16.000
young age.