Police discovered the missing five people after a 48 hour search in the early hours of Monday morning, on a major link road to Cardiff in St Melons.

Sophie Russon, 20, Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, Rafel Jeanne, 24, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were last seen at about 2am on Saturday in Cardiff.

The three women were seen to be out in Newport City centre on Friday night in Mufflers Bar and then later joined by the two Jeanne and Loughlin from Cardiff. The group travelled 36 miles up to Trecco Bay Caravan Park in Porthcawl and back down to St. Melons where the victims were found.

The Volkswagen Tiguan was discovered just after 1am on Monday morning off a major route to Cardiff. The group was last seen in Llanedeyrn and tbe police are not clear why it took so long to find the victims.

During the weekend, families and friends of the relatives have posted all over social media asking for information about their whereabouts, with no help from the police.

Sophie Russon’s mother, Anna Certowicz, 42, was driving around in a desperate search for her daughter after police officers told her to “stop ringing” the station for updates. 

She told the Daily Mail: “They didn’t seem to care. I had to drive to Cardiff to knock on doors myself because they were doing sod all. They just didn’t seem to think it was worth investigating. It was so frustrating.”