The Murder Of April Jones: 5 Years On

• Click to Print This Page

Five-year-old April vanished after being seen getting into a car near her home in Machynlleth, Wales, in October 2012. Her disappearance generated a tremendous amount of national and international press coverage.

A 46-year-old local man, Mark Bridger, was found guilty of April's abduction and murder. Jailing him for life, the trial judge ordered that he never be released from prison.

A forensic expert said fragments of human bone consistent with a "younger individual" had been found in the fireplace of Bridger's cottage, along with blood matching April's DNA. But her body has never been found.

Bridger claimed he’d accidentally run over April in his car and couldn’t remember disposing of her body due to alcohol and panic – though he later confessed to prison chaplain that he’d dumped her remains in a fast-flowing river next his home.

Five years on, this film looks at what happened to the key characters in one of Britain's most heart-breaking crimes, including what happened to the family she left behind and the community shattered by her loss.