May 13, 2025 • 66 mins
The Murder of April Jones - Mark Bridger - True Crime Documentary
Crime documentary. A forensic psychologist reviews the tapes made of the interrogation of Mark Bridger, who was arrested following the disappearance of five-year-old April Jones in October 2012.
April Sue-Lyn Jones was a Welsh child from Machynlleth, Powys, who disappeared on 1 October 2012, after being sighted getting into a vehicle near her home. The disappearance of April Jones, aged five, generated a large amount of national and international press coverage.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/best-true-crime-documentaries--6015157/support.
Crime documentary. A forensic psychologist reviews the tapes made of the interrogation of Mark Bridger, who was arrested following the disappearance of five-year-old April Jones in October 2012.
April Sue-Lyn Jones was a Welsh child from Machynlleth, Powys, who disappeared on 1 October 2012, after being sighted getting into a vehicle near her home. The disappearance of April Jones, aged five, generated a large amount of national and international press coverage.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/best-true-crime-documentaries--6015157/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's interment tape recorded and I'm DC Luise Thomas the
idea in Abustwith police station.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Who also present is a DC Noel Blakeman.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's the biggest missing person search in British police history.
In October twenty twelve, April Jones disappeared close to her
home in the town of Mahuntleth, Wales.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Can you give me a full name of dated birth please.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
It's Mark Leonard Bridger sixth eleventh bue In sixty five.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Within twenty four hours, local man Mark Bridger was arrested
on suspicion.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Of her abduction and the date is the second of
October twenty twelve.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And when in Aberystwyth Police station.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Desperate to bring April home alive, police spent five days
face to face with their prime suspect Mark.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
We don't want her to suffer anymore.
Speaker 6 (01:07):
If he was going to conceal a body, because april
size should be quite easy to conceal.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
But Bridger refused to give up April, even as a
nation prayed for her safe return.
Speaker 7 (01:18):
If you saw anything, heard anything, help this family find
their lovely child.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Now using police recordings never before.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Heard, we need to bring her home.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I know interviews with April's family and for the first
time with the two detectives who led Bridges questioning.
Speaker 8 (01:39):
You could see the pure venom in his face.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
He did not like to be depicted as a pedophile.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
With unprecedented access to police evidence and those who pieced
it together, I'm.
Speaker 9 (01:54):
Being told that there is no forendic evidence, nothing.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And the forensic psychology just brought in who's never spoken
before about the case.
Speaker 10 (02:04):
He probably was someone who had fantasized of adopting and
murdering a child.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This is the hour by hour story of how police
tried to extract the truth from the man they believed
had murdered April.
Speaker 8 (02:18):
We needed Mark Bridge to talk and that is down
to me and lou All of the evidence suggests that
you have abducted April.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
It happened exactly the way I tell you. I did
not abduct April.
Speaker 11 (02:47):
Little d owl, little devil, That's what we used to
call her, because she was into mischief, not not but mischief.
That was part of her personality. She had to have
a bicycle because of her disabilities.
Speaker 12 (03:13):
The bike gave me a called massive independence. She wouldn't
have to rely on us to walk.
Speaker 13 (03:18):
She wouldn't have to wait for us if she got tired,
to pick her up and carry her or anything like that.
The bike was her legs, so she would go everywhere
on this bike. It was She was never ever without it.
Speaker 14 (03:33):
She just loved it.
Speaker 11 (03:54):
I remember everything about that day.
Speaker 14 (04:01):
She had swimming lessons, took her to pool.
Speaker 13 (04:06):
I took her in, got her changed, asked she finished
a lesson, changed her everything like that. She's just skipping
out the changing room. She's very happy. We then drove home.
I was going to the local youth club, so I
gave her a caddling kiss, said I'll take you in tonight.
Speaker 12 (04:26):
I love you, and she said her back, and off
she went.
Speaker 11 (04:30):
She had to our house, went over to her friend's house.
That was three of them all together. And then I thought,
this is strange. Apel was not back.
Speaker 15 (04:47):
I'm not thinking knocked you pick somebody keeps going up
in the car with somebody going be picked up in
a car or something.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Okay, what the name of her?
Speaker 16 (04:54):
Child of God?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Nicking?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
How old is he?
Speaker 9 (04:58):
Bye?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
When the first car came in, I went to April's house.
Obviously there's distress, this confusion. What we were getting was
that April had gone into a car till time was crucial.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
A seven year old girl tells police she saw what happened.
Speaker 8 (05:17):
The one witness that we have, April's friend, who was
out playing with her at the time, says that April
got into the car happy and smiling.
Speaker 17 (05:29):
On her own accord.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's possible April knows the driver and the nine to
nine to nine call has been a false alarm. But
with no more to go on, police must treat the
incident as a potential crime and action.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Obviously, there was roadblocks put in, the dog handlers were
sent out. Scenes were trying to be identified.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
More and more people were being porting from all over
the false area.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You've got people everywhere the pavements, the road into the
hills trying to find her.
Speaker 18 (06:04):
There were police scars everywhere. The search teams would arrive
in family friends. I've never seen so many people, to
be honest, people I don't even know were coming out.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
An hour passes and then two hours, but April's still
not being found.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
And I knew then what a massive, massive job is
were going to be.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
By dawn, there's still no news this morning.
Speaker 13 (06:41):
They queued around the block, many having had no sleep
waiting to be told where to search.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Hey Hey.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
One of David Powers Police's most senior detectives, Andy John
Is brought in to lead the inquiry.
Speaker 19 (07:03):
From the outset, the priority for myself and the overriding
objective was to find April johnes if and well, and
that is about preserving life. We had a brief description
of the vehicle provided by the seven year old friend
of April, who was a witness at that time.
Speaker 20 (07:22):
They described it as a small van, small on the
front and large at the back, so that could be
interpreted as something similar to a Ford Connect van, something
like a land Rover, and also that April got into
the driver's side.
Speaker 8 (07:41):
The significant part of it was that she said that
April got into the driver's side. Of course, at the
time that really didn't make a lot of sense, But
then as time wore on, he became apparent that in
actual fact, what she was describing was a left hand
drive vehicle.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's the first clue to the driver's identity.
Speaker 19 (08:07):
During the morning of the second of October, at about
eight am, I had information passed to me through our
intelligence cell to the effect that there was an individual
named Mark Bridger who actually had access and owned a vehicle,
a land Rover, which was a left hand drive. That
was a significant step forward in terms of that vehicle
potentially being the vehicle that was used to abduct April.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Handyman. Mark Bridger lives a few miles north of mahantleth
Immediately he's designated as a person of interest.
Speaker 19 (08:47):
He was a forty six year old man. He lived alone.
He had a number of children living within the same community.
Speaker 11 (08:54):
He knew her, he was a local person. He saw
her and we picked her from school when he was
with his girlfriend picking her kids up.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
If April knew the driver, this could explain why her
friend said she got into the car happy and smiley.
And now other witnesses say they saw Bridger at the
estate on Monday evening.
Speaker 19 (09:16):
Now, as we firmed up on some of the main
lines of inquiry, I made a decision to declare Mark
Bridger as a suspect in the investigation.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Police are immediately sent to arrest him.
Speaker 8 (09:32):
It was huge. There's a lot of activity going on
over him and Countliff.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
They find Bridge's house empty, though officers notice something strange.
Speaker 19 (09:42):
It feels very warm. There is what is described as
a roaring fire the wood burner. There was a distinct
smell of detergent cleaning fluid. The officers from that information
felt that something had certainly gone on in that premises.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Two hours later, a patrol car spots Bridger walking beside
a main road.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
I started hearing on the radio the coordination of the
arrest and the helicopter and everything.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
He is a local man, they said, who has a
vehicle similar to the one apparently involved in the five
year old subduction.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
I remember thinking to him that wow, that was that
was quick. You know that that was quick.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
On high alert, A police convoy speeds Bridger to avarist
With twenty miles away.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
When we had the call someone had been arrested.
Speaker 21 (10:32):
We had of a thirty minutes notice before he gave
me the custody.
Speaker 8 (10:37):
When he came in, he was calm. He wasn't shouting
or screaming and nothing like that.
Speaker 22 (10:44):
As I stood at the custody desk, Mark Bridger was
brought in and that was quite unusual moment. I was
expecting someone with a bit more more, but he was
very calm.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
He was.
Speaker 22 (11:04):
In control, I would say.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
As Bridge's body is swabbed and his clothes seized newly
found CCTV arrives at the incident room, filmed by a
search helicopter. It shows, by pure chance, Mark Bridger five
hours before his arrest.
Speaker 19 (11:25):
What was interesting, He seemed to be very controlled, very
calm in terms of the way he walked. Most people
would probably have looked up and taken an interest in
seeing a helicopter. That wasn't the case with Mark Bridger.
It was just something which did raise alarm bells and
supported some of the other information that we were getting
to know about the individual.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Time is now critical.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's almost twenty four hours now from the time that
April's gone missing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
DC's Louise Thomas and Noel Blakeman are assigned to conduct
what's known as an urgent in you.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You've got all sorts of thoughts running through your mind.
April Jones's family were desperate to try and find what
has happened. The world media were outside. I felt an
immense amount of pressure.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
These interviews are ultimately fraught with danger. They're conducted without
the presence of a solicitor for a very specific purpose,
in this case, to find out where April was.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
The first question is preservation of life, So I said
to Mark Bridger, where is she? Where is April Jones?
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I don't know where she is. Yesterday I came down
to see my daughter's teacher. She had an parent's eating
and I then parked up opposite my girlfriend's house, which
I believe is not far away from April's mother and
father's house. Stupid. I've had a future drink and there
(13:09):
was two girls on their bikes. I remember the dark
headed girl came behind the car. I looked to see
where the other girl was and I couldn't see this
other little girl. And the next minute the bike.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was there, just coming into the Brinagorga stat here now
on the left hand side. It's quite kind of surreal
(13:43):
being back here again, especially at night like this. But
being back in these circumstances and in these conditions when
it's dark, it's it's nighttime.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I started to car up. As I went to pull
away the car, there.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Wasn't a thud.
Speaker 17 (14:06):
I can't understand.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
The car rose up, I say, opened the car.
Speaker 17 (14:11):
I've walked around.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And underneath the front of the car. H he is now,
I know to be ape.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
She was only little, so I picked her up and
put it across my seat and put her in what
is the off side seat that the passenger seat. Tried
to take a pulse and there was nothing. I put
my mouth over her mouth and went to blow. Put
my hand back on the chest, and that's when I realized.
Speaker 23 (14:43):
One side of her chest wasn't there. I don't crushed
I crushed her little body. So I then drove out
of Brine Gorge.
Speaker 19 (14:58):
He admits to be present at the time that April
is taken. However, his version of events were along the
lines of that he was collided with April while she's
on her bike. As a result of that collisure, April
is injured. He tries to administer CPR and tries from
the area with April and his vehicle. That was certainly
(15:20):
something that I didn't expect to hear.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
By placing himself at the scene with April, Bridger is
making it hard for detectives to tell truth from lies.
Speaker 17 (15:31):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Coming up on my right hand side here now the
set of garages, which is right opposite the row of houses.
So that's the abduction site of April Jones or where
Mark Bridger said that he'd had his road traffic accident
and he'd run her over. Nothing has changed. It's that
(15:57):
one street lamp in the corner. It's somewhere that children
were playing innocently.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
So I then drove out of Brinnan gorg I remember
driving down the back road. My intention was to get
to medical help.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
This is the back road that Mark Bridger says that
he's driven, which is called Tanner Aft Road. It's the
road leading from the Brindan Gorga state onto the monument.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
I ended up at the monument in Bac.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
So what have you done there in Mark?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I've then gone down by the railway station. I turned around.
I've ended up eleven o'clock and remember her still being
in the car. And that's what I realized.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
It's okay, Mark, the color okay, Paul and.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Coral are friends of mine. I've killed a daughter.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It's an appalling admission.
Speaker 8 (17:36):
He basically said that April had died as a result
of this accident.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Although he's given a detailed account of April's death, Bridget
now appears vague about what happened to her.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Next, we were trying to narrow down exactly when was
the last point he remember seeing April. That was the
specific agenda that we needed to cover with him in
that Urgent interview.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
So when you've got to the monument, yes, is she
in the car.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
I'm trying to jog my memory to know what I've done.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
It's okay, Mark.
Speaker 17 (18:07):
The next minute.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And I'm in my house and she's not there, be
us to his and I.
Speaker 16 (18:16):
Can't find her. I wouldn't have ditched her. I know
that I wouldn't have I put her somewhere.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Despite the outburst, detectives are beginning to doubt Bridge's sincerity.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
He would visibly cry, if I can't remember what I've done,
And there was these tear drops that were dropping onto
the paper and almost the size of a temp piece.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
We need to find her.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I don't know where I've put her.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
And then he'd look up at you and there was nothing.
There was no indication that he had been crying at all.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I'm going to stop the take nowive.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
After twenty seven minutes, the Urgent interview ends.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
As we came out with that interview, we just thought,
is Mark Bridge telling the truth? Is April Jones really dead?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
In reality? At that time? We only had his word
for that. We had this version of events with these
haphazard locations. And then thereafter, and I think you have
to view that with some suspicion.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
One thing is known. CCTV from a local petrol station
shows Bridge's car leaving town just minutes after April was
last seen. It's vital police discover what he did next.
(19:57):
Desperate to find missing child, ap Paul Jones Police scale
up their media strategy.
Speaker 20 (20:04):
Thank you very much for coming along to this press conference.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
With me.
Speaker 20 (20:12):
Is Carl Jones, April's mother, and Die Smith, who's April's
step granddad. They're accompanied by their family, Aison officer Hailey Hurd.
Speaker 18 (20:28):
On Wednesday morning, we asked Carl if she do a
press statement.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Coral's been told that Bridger is saying he killed April,
but he doesn't know where she is.
Speaker 18 (20:38):
She'd had some information, life changing information shared with her
the night before, but of course the press weren't aware
of that at that time.
Speaker 15 (20:47):
It's been thirty six hours.
Speaker 14 (20:51):
April has taken problems.
Speaker 15 (20:54):
And this is someone out there who knows where he
is and can help please find her were We're desperate
for any news. April is only five years old, Please
please help find her.
Speaker 18 (21:18):
There was a little girl and Coral was still trying
to portray some hope. The emotion was surrendous. I did
find that extremely emotional to see us so upset.
Speaker 20 (21:32):
I said earlier. We're pursuing a number of lines of
inquiry and Mark Bridger is.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
One of them.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Around mcuntleith, the search for April continues in Aberystwyth. DC's
Louise Thomas and Nole Blakeman prepare to interview Mark Bridget again.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
He was obviously always sat there. The propriate adult would
be sat next to him to a phasyltic communication, and
then you'd have the solicitor in the corner. Obviously we
needed to speak to him again. Tuesday was very much
his agenda, his account by what happened. By Wednesday it
(22:28):
was now our agenda. It was our topic areas that
we wanted to cover today.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Detectives want to probe Bridger about his claim that he
accidentally ran April over.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Can you tell me that when you get out of
your vehicle, that you've looked underneath the vehicle.
Speaker 17 (22:47):
And you've seen April.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yes, But a key witness, April's seven year old friend,
has a different story.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
She was able to tell us that April had gone
into the car happy and smiling, not the running over
and killing her in a car accident how he described.
Speaker 24 (23:09):
We have a witness that was present. This person says
April got into the land Rovern via the driver's door,
which on a normal car would be the right hand side.
But that's really the passenger side door on your car.
(23:32):
That is complete fabrication and light. It can't have happened.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
He is getting angry, but also trying not to show
that anger physically, but it's in his voice.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
He's getting angry.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That was the time for me that I realized how
large and how big Mark Bridger was and how dominating
he would have been with April. Mark is in a
case that what you're telling us didn't quite happen.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
It happened exactly the way I tell you. That person
is lying. I did not attacked. I'd like you to
go away and do the test for the car.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
That's just, oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Police turned to forensics to see if the evidence can
decide did Mark Bridger run April over with the front
of his car or did she climb into the passenger seat,
happy and smiling, as the child witness.
Speaker 25 (24:48):
Claims, this is Mark Bridge's landover. I first I saw
it the day after he was arrested, and I haven't
seen it since then.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
There was two girls on their bikes. There was now sad,
it was now knock, and the vehicle then rose up.
Speaker 25 (25:13):
I removed a bumper because I was concerned about the
damage here. It appeared to be broken, but that was
not recent damage.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
She was limp and felt lifeless, and I crossed a
little body.
Speaker 25 (25:36):
If a small childman hit by one of these vehicles,
I would have caused a lot of injuries. Blood, skin, DNA,
even transfer of fibers from April's clothing. And there was
absolutely nothing. Basically, his story wasn't true. They'd made it up.
(25:58):
They made that up.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
What else in the make up.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
With no obvious evidence of April's death, police can't discount
the possibility that she may still be alive.
Speaker 19 (26:09):
I still was keeping an open mind at that point
in terms of are we still hopefully going to be
finding April, say, if I'm well, you know, in a
hideout or at some location.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
The inquiry team's lead search advisor is Gareth Thomas. He
is now told to step up the search.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Whilst there was a chance that April was alive, you know,
all the stops were were pulled out. It has been
quoted as the largest search in British police and history.
Mountain Rescued and reported that there was the largest search
since lockerby our colleagues from urban Search and Rescue with
(26:50):
the cave rescue teams Coast Guard are in a lie
and when you put all those together with the public
it was massive, absolutely massive.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The area close to Mark Bridges House is giving special attention.
Speaker 6 (27:13):
This is the river just behind Bridges House. River is
a really nautoriously difficult to search because everything's moving very
very dynamic. On three separate occasions, this river was fingertipped
by police divers also professional volunteers such as Mountain Rescue
Fire Service. But five k downstream turns into a tide
(27:35):
less street, so there are many, many difficult areas to
have any sort of high level or confidence in knowing
that April wasn't there.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
It was very very difficult.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
With search teams desperate for a lead, Interviewers try a
new strategy to unlock bridges memory.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
During the interview, we gave him maps even placed on
the walls all around him to try and get him
to sort of visualize certain areas. We were encouraging him
to look at them, getting him to focus on where
possibly that you may have put April.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
You mentioned earlier about hiding her from the rain.
Speaker 17 (28:20):
I wouldn't have buried her.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
I would have capped her or put her somewhere and
the shelter.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Are there locations that are personal and private to you
that you would have laid April?
Speaker 5 (28:32):
There's a cycle track just above my house, but and
I certainly don't recollect being up there.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Despite the new strategy, Bridges still can't or won't reveal
April's whereabouts.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was hugely frustrating. We were desperately trying to work
with each other and trying to find ways of how
were we going to get this information from Mark Bridge.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
There was pressure on us. We're not getting past that
block about what happened after she had died in the car.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Andy John needs answers. He calls in one of Britain's
leading experts on the criminal mind. This is the first
time he's spoken about the case.
Speaker 10 (29:18):
So I first became aware of April Jones's disappearance on
the day after the abduction had taken place.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'd heard about Joe Sullivan. I knew he'd work with
the Madeline McCann, but in particularly the Soer murders.
Speaker 10 (29:34):
My role is to give officers insight into how offenders
of this nature think, and how they process information, and
how they respond to certain types of questions.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Using his expertise, Dr Sullivan now creates a psychological profile
of Bridger.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
One of the first things that I wanted to do
was to see where Mark Bridger lived. As you walked
into the front room, there was a shotgun above the fireplace.
There were replica handguns and two pairs of handcuffs that
were very openly displayed. He had a background in working
in an abattoir. He had a number of knives that
(30:19):
were in the property. He also had quite a number
of books about sas survival techniques and living in the wild,
breathing this impression of himself as some sort of Rambo
type character that suggested that perhaps he was a fantasist,
someone living in a world that he'd created in his
own mind.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Back at the station, Doctor Sullivan briefs the team on
his early findings just as they prepare for the last
interview of the day.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So Joe Sullivan was already piecing together a psychological profile
of Mark Bridge. He told us appealing to his paternal
side possibly wasn't a good idea, but we decided to
go against that really and just give it a go.
We had nothing to lose. The time I might watch
(31:19):
is twenty two hundred hours. This is going to be
the final interview for tonight. Yes, it's been a tough day.
Speaker 17 (31:29):
Okay, obviously she hasn't been found.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
No, she hasn't been found. We need to bring her home.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
I know if I really honestly knew where she was,
I would tell you.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
We've only got your version of events.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
We've only got your word to say that you run
her over and that you've killed her.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
I can promise you would it. She's not alive. I
can't change my story. It's what happened that.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Night, Mark.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We don't want her to suffer anymore. He's a father,
he's got six children. You know he wouldn't want this
to happen to his child. But I was trying to
plead with him, really, you're.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
A parent, Yes, you've got a daughter. Yes, let's think
about a put yourself in their shoes. I had not
pay for hours and hour sat myself.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I really really thought, perhaps yes, this would be the
turning point.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
It doesn't matter what time of the night it is.
Make I will ring the bell, We'll speak to you
and we will sort it.
Speaker 17 (32:49):
I want it sorted.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Mark Bridger has a story and he's sticking to it.
If police are to find April, they need a breakthrough,
I'd promise I.
Speaker 17 (33:00):
Will do ef.
Speaker 12 (33:11):
We moved into Brinagogue in the March of two thousand
and seven.
Speaker 14 (33:17):
April was born.
Speaker 12 (33:18):
I think maybe a week or two later.
Speaker 14 (33:22):
She was premature, seven weeks. She wanted to come out
in this world.
Speaker 13 (33:27):
At a young age, April had miles cereral palsy. She
was so so tiny, we don't know if she'd make it.
It was a really, really rough start to her life.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
By twenty twelve, April was living a happy life with
mum Coral, Dad Paul, and her siblings Harley and Jasmine.
Speaker 14 (33:50):
The happy memories will always be there. Abadve.
Speaker 11 (33:54):
We used to go to a lot, used to go
there for days, out.
Speaker 12 (34:00):
To go into the beach, and someone in the say.
Speaker 11 (34:02):
She was just outgoing, bubbly like a brother's sisters work.
Speaker 14 (34:06):
But she ruled a roost.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Two and a half days since going missing, forty four
police forces are now desperately trying to find April.
Speaker 11 (34:29):
We turned on the TV. I saw David Cameron doing
a speech.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Well, my heart just goes out to April's family and
this is every family's nightmare. Clearly, having this happened to you,
and the fact that she suffered cerebral palsy, something I
know a little about from my own children, only makes
this worse.
Speaker 11 (34:48):
I'd never thought i'd hear a Prime minister told about
me and my family at all.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
My appeal would be, if you know anything, if you
saw anything, heard anything, have any ideas you can bring forward,
talk to the police, help this family find their lovely child.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
Oh so shocked, but so pleased that he had said
something about it.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Five miles north of where the abduction happened, forensic teams
are examining Bridges House.
Speaker 22 (35:22):
The focus for the house was to look for anything
that could indicate April had been present. I asked for
things like drinking vessels to be looked at, had he
provided April with any food, and then to also look
for any blood staining any items of clothing. When they
(35:47):
did this in the bathroom, they did locate some tiny
spots of blood on the bathroom wall. This was fed
back to me. The source of those spots there could
be anybody's and we just need to see if it
matches April or not.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Samples are rushed to the lab. The results won't be
in for twenty four hours. Meanwhile, in Aberystwyth, the questioning
of Mark Bridger enters its third day.
Speaker 20 (36:22):
The investigation team will be interviewing Mark Bridger again today
and we will continue to piece together his movements during
the relevant times and looking to overlay his account with
that that we've gleaned from witnesses.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
One witness reports seeing Bridger the morning after the abduction
close to the river near his home.
Speaker 6 (36:52):
That witness will say that they saw Bridger walk into
his car, describes what appearing to be carrying a plastic
black bag, like what was he doing there, you know,
just a mile away from his warm address, coming out
with the undergrowth. So the theory is that he's either
gone to recover something or he going to place something there.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
The layby is excavated but nothing is found, with nobody
and Bridges sticking firmly to his story. It's a frustrating
time for the detectives.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Just have a look at that, yes, and think where
is Apron?
Speaker 5 (37:30):
I really don't know.
Speaker 8 (37:31):
I can remember going into the canteen and overhearing conversations
about why can't they get in to tell us where
she was? And you know, in my mind, I'm trying,
I'm really trying to get this information out, but it's
just not happening.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Just to remind you, Mark that the red light is on. Obviously,
as we explained, this interview has been monitored.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Bridge's refusal to give up April now hints at a
new and ominous side to his personality.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Joe Sullivan sat us down. He gave a PowerPoint presentation
for about twenty minutes of how to identify and understand
a psychopath.
Speaker 10 (38:08):
I told him that I believed that Mark Bridger probably
had quite a number of psychopathic traits. He was unlikely
to experience an enormous amount of empathy or have any
major sense of guilt about what he had done. Of course,
he will inevitably try to present himself as someone who
does have those characteristics. But the sense that I had
(38:30):
from the information we had gathered even at that time,
was that this is a man who is not going
to respond to an appeal to his better nature.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
The profiles suggests Bridger won't confess, so police must instead
finding consistencies in his story.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The main focus, I think for Joe Sullivan, and the
main focus for everybody in the investigation, was to keep
Mark Bridger talking. The moment that Mark Bridge's stopped talking,
we will not be able to go any further with
the investigation. We would not get any more information out
of him.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
April went missing on Monday evening. Now on Thursday, Andy
John instructs the interviewing team.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Before we start this part of the interview.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I do need to further arrest you, Mark okay, on
suspicion of murder of April Jones on the first of
October twenty twelve.
Speaker 8 (39:31):
There was shock, the physical shock of his body.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
He was now white, he was pale, simply because he
thought we had found her.
Speaker 8 (39:40):
I can remember him turning to his solicitor looking at like, hey,
is this something you haven't told me.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Here there's another significant development. Detectives have found indecent images
on Mark Bridges' laptop.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
And I do have to further arrest you on suspicion
of possession cham pornography.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
You're under caution, okay, Yes.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
There's now a possible sexual motive for the abduction. But crucially,
after three days, police have also given up hope of
finding April alive. It's a turning point in the investigation
and the family need to be told.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
And an agreement with Coral and her husband Paul that
we would always tell them the truth.
Speaker 11 (40:37):
Dave got a place for us to go away from
the press so we didn't have to have the press
surround it all the time, and it has little offices
just up the road from where we live, and we
called it out was Santry Place.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Where are the Coral Bye.
Speaker 18 (40:59):
The day the status of the arrest of Mark Bridger changed,
we went to pick up a pole and Coral to
bring them to the sanctuary and share the information and
it was just life changing.
Speaker 14 (41:13):
It was dreadful.
Speaker 11 (41:18):
To get told it's not aduction case anymore, it's a
murder and and you've got to tell your children.
Speaker 14 (41:37):
They've lost her baby sister.
Speaker 11 (41:48):
Getting told your daughters dead but they don't know where
she is, and that was a harder sin.
Speaker 13 (42:19):
I briefly remember the volunteers have been called back from
search and it was just to be laughed to the professionals.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
It is no longer appropriate for us to expect untrained
members of the public to continue the search.
Speaker 13 (42:36):
They didn't want them to come across the body, and
I still remember people crying and complete strangers just in tears.
Speaker 18 (42:49):
I think the fact that that status had been changed,
that there was no hope really that April was going
to be found alive, which was life changing for Paul
and Carl, for Jasmine and Harley as well.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Police are now sure that Mark Bridger has murdered April,
but after two days of intense interviews, there's still not
enough evidence to charge him.
Speaker 8 (43:14):
There was this facade that he was actually trying to
help us out, but in reality wasn't actually giving us
an awful lot.
Speaker 21 (43:23):
It was an evening or a night shift when he
asked for the Warden Survey map of the area so
we could jog his memory. We'd be checking on him
every fifteen to thirty minutes in his cell and he'd
been lying on the floor to study the map, but
he never came up with anything to say where she was.
Speaker 10 (43:47):
I've no doubt that while he's pawing over the maps
and making it look like he is trying to remember
the location of April's body. What he's actually doing in
his head is trying to second guess worthy interview's got
are going next to what are the sorts of things
that he needs to address and how he needs to
(44:07):
present himself. This is an individual who's very much in
survival mode.
Speaker 17 (44:17):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
It was just another game he was playing with us.
Speaker 17 (44:22):
It was all one big game dame.
Speaker 6 (44:34):
As days went by with less and less hope from
the interview, so we expand our search.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
By Friday, police have identified over six hundred search areas.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
Everything you can see here is part of the search area.
This was a real, real key area for us, and
as you can see, it's heavily sided, steep wooded valleys,
very very difficult to ring. A lot of these areas
are only accessible by officers on ropes working really really carefully.
(45:17):
And it's not just what you can see above the ground.
There's the subterranean element as well, a lot of caves
heavily mined. But you can just see from this high
point er a massive, massive search effort. April is a
five year old, but she was a very really small
five year old. So one thing we had to consider
(45:41):
if he was going to conceal a body that because
april size should be quite easy to conceal, quite easy
to carry a sort of significant distance from a parked vehicle.
He almost told everybody was in the special services, which
has proved not to be the case. But he was
certainly comfortable in the outdoor. We were told that he
(46:01):
worked for the Forestry Commission. He'd worked as a lifeguard.
He worked in an Albertois saw where we were looking
for deposition sites or areas that you may have got
rid of April's bodies. There was a lot of factors
to consider.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
So far, forensics have found no evidence to support Bridge's
story that he ran April over.
Speaker 4 (46:23):
She was lay there on the seat and that's what
I realized one time.
Speaker 5 (46:28):
Her chest wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Forensics have also examined the car's interior. Now police will
confront Bridger with the findings.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
Our forensics guys have examined the vehicle agree on advised
that there is no trace of any blood, There is
no trace of any hair, no trace of any skin mark.
Speaker 8 (46:52):
Bridget was relying on the fact that he'd run over April.
There's this accident, He's done this. He there and picks
her up, puts her into the car and then drives away.
You'd expect to find blood from the injury. Yet the
scientists are turning around saying, hey, we haven't found anything.
Speaker 9 (47:16):
There is no indication whatsoever right of anybody underneath that vehicle.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
That is obviously very very strange, because if I ever
producted her, there would be some sort of hair and
fingerprints and things.
Speaker 9 (47:31):
There's nothing there forensically to right corroborate your account.
Speaker 4 (47:37):
And this is an opportunity for you to try this.
Speaker 17 (47:41):
Let's move to the inside.
Speaker 9 (47:42):
Then, yes, the interior, and again I'm being told that
there is no forensic evidence, no hair, no blood, no nothing.
Speaker 17 (47:54):
There's no blood.
Speaker 5 (47:56):
I didn't feel any blood at that time anyway, there
was nothing that there was nothing visible. There was no
traces of blood on me or her at that time.
Speaker 17 (48:06):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 8 (48:08):
Nobody has seen this accident happen, and the only person
that's saying that there was an accident was him.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Interviewed on suspicion of murdering April Jones, Mark Bridger claims
he tried to save the five year old after injuring
her in a car accident. He also insists there was
no blood on either him or her. Yet blood has
now been found not in bridges car but in his house.
Speaker 22 (48:41):
So roundabout quarter past six on the Friday evening, I
received an email from the lab with the results of
the blood spots from the bathroom wall. These two areas
of apparent blood spatter on the bathroom wall we compared
to the DNA that we'd obtained from April Jones's toothbrush
(49:04):
and it gave a match. Something obviously has happened at
the home address and Mark Bridge.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
And there's more fresh evidence.
Speaker 22 (49:17):
They found a tiny bit of blood on the inside
collar of Bridges' fleece and there was also a DNA
present from April on the inside of his jog in bottoms.
This is definitely a significant point in the investigation. We've
(49:37):
now got a definite link between April and the scene
of Mark Bridge's home address.
Speaker 8 (49:49):
On the second day of having the sanctuary, Andy John
came up and had to tell parents that April's blood
had been identified in Bridges' house.
Speaker 19 (50:00):
I can't begin to imagine what it is like to
have lost a child in such horrific circumstances and the
pain that the family would have suffered at the time.
Speaker 14 (50:11):
I do find the Harness. Time was telling Harley Hears.
Speaker 12 (50:15):
On my bed.
Speaker 11 (50:19):
Like we normally are, because it wouldn't go to bed
until at midnight.
Speaker 14 (50:24):
At the time, I had to tell.
Speaker 11 (50:28):
Him that sister is not coming home.
Speaker 14 (50:38):
She's murdered.
Speaker 11 (50:40):
A scream still today haunts me. Something becomes along like
him and takes the little sister away. It's well, there's
nothing I say about that. Can't you perhaps what I
(51:01):
want to do to him?
Speaker 18 (51:15):
I remember wanting to go home and hug my two
kids closely and be very thankful for what I had
at home. I think it makes you put things into
perspective and realize what is important and what isn't important.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
The discovery of April's blood is a major breakthrough, but
the case is about to enter still darker territory. Bridger's
laptop has now been fully examined. Police hope its contents
will finally force Bridger to reveal the truth.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Friday was the main day that we had to challenge
him on all the sexually explicit material that was recovered
from his computer. It was a tough day myself and
not unexperienced officers. We'd seen, you know, child images before.
We've had to interview child sex offenders before.
Speaker 9 (52:13):
All I want to do is just start going through
some of the images that be recovered.
Speaker 8 (52:18):
Right, Okay, they're difficult interviews to conduct because we're going
to talk about graphic pornographic images of children. It's not
a nice subject at all on any level.
Speaker 5 (52:34):
Tell me what you see thereas it looks like the
four stage of developments of breasts.
Speaker 17 (52:40):
How does that make you feel?
Speaker 5 (52:42):
It doesn't make me feel sexual at all.
Speaker 17 (52:45):
Right, the next image, what do you see there?
Speaker 16 (52:48):
Right?
Speaker 5 (52:48):
Obviously this is a young girl, could be between eight
and twelve. There's nothing sexual about that to me at all.
Speaker 10 (52:58):
He had very clear strategy to distance himself from any
form of sexual arousal to the images that he had
on his computer, because, of course, in his fantasy world,
the rambo esque character that he sees himself as, there's
no room for him being sexually interested in children.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Bridger has shown more images found on his laptop, some
depicting violence and the sexual assault of children.
Speaker 9 (53:26):
What I'm going to do now is turn over to
the next image. It's imaged three brackets fifteen jpeg.
Speaker 17 (53:32):
What's going on there?
Speaker 19 (53:34):
There was also material within the computer of Mark Bridge.
I'ving searched a website relating to child murders and the
most terrific incidents, and do you remember searching for that?
Speaker 17 (53:46):
No, well, they've been typed into the Google search engine.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
I don't remember typing that in a nun.
Speaker 10 (53:50):
I doubt this was somebody who was sexually interested in children.
This was somebody who probably had a long standing sexual
interest in children.
Speaker 17 (53:59):
I will conclude this.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
You know, after almost four hours the interview ends.
Speaker 8 (54:05):
The case itself is starting to look like it's a
sexually motivated child murder.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Police believe they have a motive, but still there's no
body and there's now only a few hours before Bridge's
custody clock runs out.
Speaker 19 (54:24):
I was very aware of the fact that we had
potentially a maximum of ninety six hours in which he
could investigate the matter's Rice Mack Bridger was in custody.
Speaker 8 (54:32):
The significance of the custody clock is that when it
reaches zero, you have to either have charged the suspect
or he walks out at the police station.
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Mark Bridger has now been in custody for three and
a half days. If he's not charged within the next
few hours, he could walk.
Speaker 8 (55:00):
I can vividly remember how anxious Coral was. She was
frightened that he wasn't going to be charged because if
he wasn't charged, as we kept telling her, the law said,
he had to be released.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
The decision whether or not to charge Mark Bridger will
be made by the Crown Prosecution Service, but first they
must wait for one last interview, hoping that DC's Louise
Thomas and Noel Blakeman can finally crack their suspect.
Speaker 9 (55:30):
You can tell me where she is, don't you know
where the body is?
Speaker 1 (55:37):
No?
Speaker 17 (55:38):
Where she is? Did you intend murder?
Speaker 4 (55:42):
Now?
Speaker 1 (55:43):
This last interview really is the last throw at the dice.
It's what we call the challenge, and it's a summary
really of everything that we've gone through for that week,
and it's a challenge of all the inconsistencies that we
were able to put to him. I mean, ultimately, our
case stood on my bridges word against a child witness,
and she was able to tell us that April Jones
(56:05):
got into that car willingly. There was no evidence of
a road traffic accident. There was no blood or anything
of that of April Jones in the vehicle outside the vehicle,
and we had April Jones's DNA on certain garments he'd
been wearing.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
Forensic tests have also proved that blood found in the
house is Aprils.
Speaker 8 (56:28):
It's gold dust. We've got blood in his bathroom from April.
Speaker 17 (56:36):
Blood has been found on the wall of the bathroom
at your house, right.
Speaker 9 (56:40):
And this blood gives a full DNA profile of April Jones.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
The only explanation I've got is, obviously, if I've got
blood on my hands, if I haven't dried my hands,
you flick your hands. I've gone for a week.
Speaker 8 (56:55):
Within seconds, and he goes, that must have been when
I was drying my hands. I just dried my hands
like this.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
He was quite animated in how he was recreating the
washing of the hands and the possibility of flicking.
Speaker 5 (57:13):
So it's possibly a transfer of blood from having some
sort of blood in my hands.
Speaker 8 (57:21):
But there was no blood in the car. You said
you didn't find any visible blood on you or anything.
I must have been mistaken. Clearly there was, was his response.
Speaker 3 (57:33):
Faced with damning evidence, still, Bridger refuses to flinch.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
Obviously, there was only a very minute amount of blood,
which I've said from the beginning, I never ever recalled
having blood from the injury or from April's yes.
Speaker 9 (57:50):
Sorry, yes, the question I have to ask, yes, yeah,
there's that blood there because April was assaulted in the bathroom.
Speaker 5 (57:59):
Not at all, not that I recollect at all. No.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
DC Blakeman now moves on to the evidence found on
Mark bridges laptop.
Speaker 9 (58:09):
We're obviously concerned that you have a sexual interest in children.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
I haven't got any interest in children.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
We knew that we had found child pornography on his computers,
and we knew that he'd been viewing them moments and
days leading up to what had happened to April Jones.
Speaker 9 (58:28):
And you viewed all these pointers within minutes of each other.
Were you masturbating to these photographs?
Speaker 3 (58:35):
No?
Speaker 17 (58:35):
Is this a build up? Is this what was happening
that morning a build up of sexual frustration? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (58:41):
Why hasn't it built up before?
Speaker 16 (58:43):
Then?
Speaker 17 (58:43):
Maybe the opportunity hasn't arisen.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Well, maybe it's just shit.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
He did not like to be depicted as a pedophile
and somebody that was looking images for sexual gratification of children.
That's when it became argumentative that when we saw the
real Mark Bridger.
Speaker 9 (59:03):
Explain to me how and why you sexually assaulted April.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
I'm just not sexually assault April. There was no sexual
assault on April.
Speaker 17 (59:14):
Did you suffocate her?
Speaker 5 (59:15):
No?
Speaker 17 (59:16):
Did you use a sharp weapon?
Speaker 5 (59:18):
Now all my knives can be checked.
Speaker 9 (59:21):
All of the evidence we have suggests that you have
abducted and murdered April with a sexual motive.
Speaker 17 (59:29):
Therefore, the reason that you're not telling us where the body.
Speaker 9 (59:32):
Is is because the discovery of her body will provide
the evidence of this.
Speaker 17 (59:38):
Is this not the case.
Speaker 5 (59:39):
This is not the case. Tom. I have stuck by
my story and I still stick by my story that
April's body was crushed under my wheel of my car.
Speaker 9 (59:49):
Unless there's anything else that you want to say, I'm
going to conclude this interview now.
Speaker 5 (59:54):
All I want to say to Bawl and Carl and
I'm sorry what happened, and that if I, in my
heart knew where Shews have ad tellent.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
As the interview ends, police are already in final negotiations
with the Crown Prosecution Service.
Speaker 8 (01:00:19):
And just over an hour after that we were charging
him with the murder of April Jones.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
I charged him with three counts, one for murder, one
for child abduction, and one for perverting the course of justice.
There was no emotion, no emotion. What's whatsoever coming from
Mark Roger.
Speaker 19 (01:00:54):
He was charged with the murder and abduction of April Jones.
Speaker 14 (01:01:02):
I was just pleased. I was so happy, I cried.
Speaker 19 (01:01:08):
He presented himself to the next available court, which was
on the following Monday.
Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
It's seven days since April went missing.
Speaker 11 (01:01:19):
People were throwing cans and all sorts of the van
at him, and people.
Speaker 14 (01:01:28):
Were going mad. That's people I didn't even know.
Speaker 11 (01:01:34):
Were outraged by him for what he's done.
Speaker 18 (01:02:31):
I don't think anybody could have prepared us, really for
the reaction that we had. When the guilty verdict came in.
Speaker 11 (01:02:40):
It was the best news I ever had. It was
so overwhelming that he's never coming out. He can't hurt
no more children.
Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
In court, Bridger again claimed that April had died in
a terrible accident. Instead, the evidence showed him to be
a premeditated killer and pedophile had been on the prowl
for a young girl.
Speaker 10 (01:03:06):
There may be sadistic elements to his personality, whereby he
enjoys the distress that he causes to others. He probably
was someone who had fantasized about abducting and murdering a child.
He certainly was primed and ready for that opportunity, and
that was something he'd visualized in his head and something
that he wanted to happen.
Speaker 19 (01:03:32):
I believe that April was taken by Mark Bridger to
his home address, and there April may well have been
subjected to sexual acts and then subsequently suffered significant harm
which led to her death. I believe that parts of
April may have been disposed of in the wood burner
and elsewey within the machantletheria.
Speaker 14 (01:04:01):
I don't know what April is. I wish I did.
Speaker 22 (01:04:08):
I know they had a phunroll for her with the
fragments from the fire year, but they didn't have her.
And for me, I just wish that he would come
forward and give that information because it must be heartbreaking
for them not knowing what's happened to their little girl.
Speaker 12 (01:04:30):
You think about April every day.
Speaker 13 (01:04:32):
It's never thought that she's gone that you never not
think about her.
Speaker 12 (01:04:39):
You could just be.
Speaker 13 (01:04:39):
Doing the most simplest things. You start watching TVN and like, oh, yeah,
she'd like this, or you see kids playing out and like,
oh yeah, April should.
Speaker 12 (01:04:47):
Be that ape. She's always on your mind. She's just there.
Speaker 8 (01:04:55):
For us. I suppose there's unfinished business, isn't there There
was no body. Despite searching, we had not located her.
We didn't as interviewers. We haven't got him to say
where she was.
Speaker 11 (01:05:14):
I have been told that a lot feel guilty that
never found April. They've got nothing to feel guilty about.
We've got him behind bards and I'm thankful for what
they've done.
Speaker 14 (01:05:26):
We haven't got April. Is sad.
Speaker 11 (01:05:31):
I don't remember the sad days. I just want to
remember the happy, go lucky little April she was.
Speaker 21 (01:06:01):
You gotta give difficulty.
Speaker 15 (01:06:03):
They look at anything
It's interment tape recorded and I'm DC Luise Thomas the
idea in Abustwith police station.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Who also present is a DC Noel Blakeman.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's the biggest missing person search in British police history.
In October twenty twelve, April Jones disappeared close to her
home in the town of Mahuntleth, Wales.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Can you give me a full name of dated birth please.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
It's Mark Leonard Bridger sixth eleventh bue In sixty five.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Within twenty four hours, local man Mark Bridger was arrested
on suspicion.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Of her abduction and the date is the second of
October twenty twelve.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And when in Aberystwyth Police station.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Desperate to bring April home alive, police spent five days
face to face with their prime suspect Mark.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
We don't want her to suffer anymore.
Speaker 6 (01:07):
If he was going to conceal a body, because april
size should be quite easy to conceal.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
But Bridger refused to give up April, even as a
nation prayed for her safe return.
Speaker 7 (01:18):
If you saw anything, heard anything, help this family find
their lovely child.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Now using police recordings never before.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Heard, we need to bring her home.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I know interviews with April's family and for the first
time with the two detectives who led Bridges questioning.
Speaker 8 (01:39):
You could see the pure venom in his face.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
He did not like to be depicted as a pedophile.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
With unprecedented access to police evidence and those who pieced
it together, I'm.
Speaker 9 (01:54):
Being told that there is no forendic evidence, nothing.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And the forensic psychology just brought in who's never spoken
before about the case.
Speaker 10 (02:04):
He probably was someone who had fantasized of adopting and
murdering a child.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This is the hour by hour story of how police
tried to extract the truth from the man they believed
had murdered April.
Speaker 8 (02:18):
We needed Mark Bridge to talk and that is down
to me and lou All of the evidence suggests that
you have abducted April.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
It happened exactly the way I tell you. I did
not abduct April.
Speaker 11 (02:47):
Little d owl, little devil, That's what we used to
call her, because she was into mischief, not not but mischief.
That was part of her personality. She had to have
a bicycle because of her disabilities.
Speaker 12 (03:13):
The bike gave me a called massive independence. She wouldn't
have to rely on us to walk.
Speaker 13 (03:18):
She wouldn't have to wait for us if she got tired,
to pick her up and carry her or anything like that.
The bike was her legs, so she would go everywhere
on this bike. It was She was never ever without it.
Speaker 14 (03:33):
She just loved it.
Speaker 11 (03:54):
I remember everything about that day.
Speaker 14 (04:01):
She had swimming lessons, took her to pool.
Speaker 13 (04:06):
I took her in, got her changed, asked she finished
a lesson, changed her everything like that. She's just skipping
out the changing room. She's very happy. We then drove home.
I was going to the local youth club, so I
gave her a caddling kiss, said I'll take you in tonight.
Speaker 12 (04:26):
I love you, and she said her back, and off
she went.
Speaker 11 (04:30):
She had to our house, went over to her friend's house.
That was three of them all together. And then I thought,
this is strange. Apel was not back.
Speaker 15 (04:47):
I'm not thinking knocked you pick somebody keeps going up
in the car with somebody going be picked up in
a car or something.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Okay, what the name of her?
Speaker 16 (04:54):
Child of God?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Nicking?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
How old is he?
Speaker 9 (04:58):
Bye?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
When the first car came in, I went to April's house.
Obviously there's distress, this confusion. What we were getting was
that April had gone into a car till time was crucial.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
A seven year old girl tells police she saw what happened.
Speaker 8 (05:17):
The one witness that we have, April's friend, who was
out playing with her at the time, says that April
got into the car happy and smiling.
Speaker 17 (05:29):
On her own accord.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's possible April knows the driver and the nine to
nine to nine call has been a false alarm. But
with no more to go on, police must treat the
incident as a potential crime and action.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Obviously, there was roadblocks put in, the dog handlers were
sent out. Scenes were trying to be identified.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
More and more people were being porting from all over
the false area.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You've got people everywhere the pavements, the road into the
hills trying to find her.
Speaker 18 (06:04):
There were police scars everywhere. The search teams would arrive
in family friends. I've never seen so many people, to
be honest, people I don't even know were coming out.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
An hour passes and then two hours, but April's still
not being found.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
And I knew then what a massive, massive job is
were going to be.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
By dawn, there's still no news this morning.
Speaker 13 (06:41):
They queued around the block, many having had no sleep
waiting to be told where to search.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Hey Hey.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
One of David Powers Police's most senior detectives, Andy John
Is brought in to lead the inquiry.
Speaker 19 (07:03):
From the outset, the priority for myself and the overriding
objective was to find April johnes if and well, and
that is about preserving life. We had a brief description
of the vehicle provided by the seven year old friend
of April, who was a witness at that time.
Speaker 20 (07:22):
They described it as a small van, small on the
front and large at the back, so that could be
interpreted as something similar to a Ford Connect van, something
like a land Rover, and also that April got into
the driver's side.
Speaker 8 (07:41):
The significant part of it was that she said that
April got into the driver's side. Of course, at the
time that really didn't make a lot of sense, But
then as time wore on, he became apparent that in
actual fact, what she was describing was a left hand
drive vehicle.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's the first clue to the driver's identity.
Speaker 19 (08:07):
During the morning of the second of October, at about
eight am, I had information passed to me through our
intelligence cell to the effect that there was an individual
named Mark Bridger who actually had access and owned a vehicle,
a land Rover, which was a left hand drive. That
was a significant step forward in terms of that vehicle
potentially being the vehicle that was used to abduct April.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Handyman. Mark Bridger lives a few miles north of mahantleth
Immediately he's designated as a person of interest.
Speaker 19 (08:47):
He was a forty six year old man. He lived alone.
He had a number of children living within the same community.
Speaker 11 (08:54):
He knew her, he was a local person. He saw
her and we picked her from school when he was
with his girlfriend picking her kids up.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
If April knew the driver, this could explain why her
friend said she got into the car happy and smiley.
And now other witnesses say they saw Bridger at the
estate on Monday evening.
Speaker 19 (09:16):
Now, as we firmed up on some of the main
lines of inquiry, I made a decision to declare Mark
Bridger as a suspect in the investigation.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Police are immediately sent to arrest him.
Speaker 8 (09:32):
It was huge. There's a lot of activity going on
over him and Countliff.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
They find Bridge's house empty, though officers notice something strange.
Speaker 19 (09:42):
It feels very warm. There is what is described as
a roaring fire the wood burner. There was a distinct
smell of detergent cleaning fluid. The officers from that information
felt that something had certainly gone on in that premises.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Two hours later, a patrol car spots Bridger walking beside
a main road.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
I started hearing on the radio the coordination of the
arrest and the helicopter and everything.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
He is a local man, they said, who has a
vehicle similar to the one apparently involved in the five
year old subduction.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
I remember thinking to him that wow, that was that
was quick. You know that that was quick.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
On high alert, A police convoy speeds Bridger to avarist
With twenty miles away.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
When we had the call someone had been arrested.
Speaker 21 (10:32):
We had of a thirty minutes notice before he gave
me the custody.
Speaker 8 (10:37):
When he came in, he was calm. He wasn't shouting
or screaming and nothing like that.
Speaker 22 (10:44):
As I stood at the custody desk, Mark Bridger was
brought in and that was quite unusual moment. I was
expecting someone with a bit more more, but he was
very calm.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
He was.
Speaker 22 (11:04):
In control, I would say.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
As Bridge's body is swabbed and his clothes seized newly
found CCTV arrives at the incident room, filmed by a
search helicopter. It shows, by pure chance, Mark Bridger five
hours before his arrest.
Speaker 19 (11:25):
What was interesting, He seemed to be very controlled, very
calm in terms of the way he walked. Most people
would probably have looked up and taken an interest in
seeing a helicopter. That wasn't the case with Mark Bridger.
It was just something which did raise alarm bells and
supported some of the other information that we were getting
to know about the individual.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Time is now critical.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's almost twenty four hours now from the time that
April's gone missing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
DC's Louise Thomas and Noel Blakeman are assigned to conduct
what's known as an urgent in you.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You've got all sorts of thoughts running through your mind.
April Jones's family were desperate to try and find what
has happened. The world media were outside. I felt an
immense amount of pressure.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
These interviews are ultimately fraught with danger. They're conducted without
the presence of a solicitor for a very specific purpose,
in this case, to find out where April was.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
The first question is preservation of life, So I said
to Mark Bridger, where is she? Where is April Jones?
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I don't know where she is. Yesterday I came down
to see my daughter's teacher. She had an parent's eating
and I then parked up opposite my girlfriend's house, which
I believe is not far away from April's mother and
father's house. Stupid. I've had a future drink and there
(13:09):
was two girls on their bikes. I remember the dark
headed girl came behind the car. I looked to see
where the other girl was and I couldn't see this
other little girl. And the next minute the bike.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was there, just coming into the Brinagorga stat here now
on the left hand side. It's quite kind of surreal
(13:43):
being back here again, especially at night like this. But
being back in these circumstances and in these conditions when
it's dark, it's it's nighttime.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I started to car up. As I went to pull
away the car, there.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Wasn't a thud.
Speaker 17 (14:06):
I can't understand.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
The car rose up, I say, opened the car.
Speaker 17 (14:11):
I've walked around.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And underneath the front of the car. H he is now,
I know to be ape.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
She was only little, so I picked her up and
put it across my seat and put her in what
is the off side seat that the passenger seat. Tried
to take a pulse and there was nothing. I put
my mouth over her mouth and went to blow. Put
my hand back on the chest, and that's when I realized.
Speaker 23 (14:43):
One side of her chest wasn't there. I don't crushed
I crushed her little body. So I then drove out
of Brine Gorge.
Speaker 19 (14:58):
He admits to be present at the time that April
is taken. However, his version of events were along the
lines of that he was collided with April while she's
on her bike. As a result of that collisure, April
is injured. He tries to administer CPR and tries from
the area with April and his vehicle. That was certainly
(15:20):
something that I didn't expect to hear.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
By placing himself at the scene with April, Bridger is
making it hard for detectives to tell truth from lies.
Speaker 17 (15:31):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Coming up on my right hand side here now the
set of garages, which is right opposite the row of houses.
So that's the abduction site of April Jones or where
Mark Bridger said that he'd had his road traffic accident
and he'd run her over. Nothing has changed. It's that
(15:57):
one street lamp in the corner. It's somewhere that children
were playing innocently.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
So I then drove out of Brinnan gorg I remember
driving down the back road. My intention was to get
to medical help.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
This is the back road that Mark Bridger says that
he's driven, which is called Tanner Aft Road. It's the
road leading from the Brindan Gorga state onto the monument.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
I ended up at the monument in Bac.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
So what have you done there in Mark?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I've then gone down by the railway station. I turned around.
I've ended up eleven o'clock and remember her still being
in the car. And that's what I realized.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
It's okay, Mark, the color okay, Paul and.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Coral are friends of mine. I've killed a daughter.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It's an appalling admission.
Speaker 8 (17:36):
He basically said that April had died as a result
of this accident.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Although he's given a detailed account of April's death, Bridget
now appears vague about what happened to her.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Next, we were trying to narrow down exactly when was
the last point he remember seeing April. That was the
specific agenda that we needed to cover with him in
that Urgent interview.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
So when you've got to the monument, yes, is she
in the car.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
I'm trying to jog my memory to know what I've done.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
It's okay, Mark.
Speaker 17 (18:07):
The next minute.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And I'm in my house and she's not there, be
us to his and I.
Speaker 16 (18:16):
Can't find her. I wouldn't have ditched her. I know
that I wouldn't have I put her somewhere.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Despite the outburst, detectives are beginning to doubt Bridge's sincerity.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
He would visibly cry, if I can't remember what I've done,
And there was these tear drops that were dropping onto
the paper and almost the size of a temp piece.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
We need to find her.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I don't know where I've put her.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
And then he'd look up at you and there was nothing.
There was no indication that he had been crying at all.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I'm going to stop the take nowive.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
After twenty seven minutes, the Urgent interview ends.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
As we came out with that interview, we just thought,
is Mark Bridge telling the truth? Is April Jones really dead?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
In reality? At that time? We only had his word
for that. We had this version of events with these
haphazard locations. And then thereafter, and I think you have
to view that with some suspicion.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
One thing is known. CCTV from a local petrol station
shows Bridge's car leaving town just minutes after April was
last seen. It's vital police discover what he did next.
(19:57):
Desperate to find missing child, ap Paul Jones Police scale
up their media strategy.
Speaker 20 (20:04):
Thank you very much for coming along to this press conference.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
With me.
Speaker 20 (20:12):
Is Carl Jones, April's mother, and Die Smith, who's April's
step granddad. They're accompanied by their family, Aison officer Hailey Hurd.
Speaker 18 (20:28):
On Wednesday morning, we asked Carl if she do a
press statement.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Coral's been told that Bridger is saying he killed April,
but he doesn't know where she is.
Speaker 18 (20:38):
She'd had some information, life changing information shared with her
the night before, but of course the press weren't aware
of that at that time.
Speaker 15 (20:47):
It's been thirty six hours.
Speaker 14 (20:51):
April has taken problems.
Speaker 15 (20:54):
And this is someone out there who knows where he
is and can help please find her were We're desperate
for any news. April is only five years old, Please
please help find her.
Speaker 18 (21:18):
There was a little girl and Coral was still trying
to portray some hope. The emotion was surrendous. I did
find that extremely emotional to see us so upset.
Speaker 20 (21:32):
I said earlier. We're pursuing a number of lines of
inquiry and Mark Bridger is.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
One of them.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Around mcuntleith, the search for April continues in Aberystwyth. DC's
Louise Thomas and Nole Blakeman prepare to interview Mark Bridget again.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
He was obviously always sat there. The propriate adult would
be sat next to him to a phasyltic communication, and
then you'd have the solicitor in the corner. Obviously we
needed to speak to him again. Tuesday was very much
his agenda, his account by what happened. By Wednesday it
(22:28):
was now our agenda. It was our topic areas that
we wanted to cover today.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Detectives want to probe Bridger about his claim that he
accidentally ran April over.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Can you tell me that when you get out of
your vehicle, that you've looked underneath the vehicle.
Speaker 17 (22:47):
And you've seen April.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yes, But a key witness, April's seven year old friend,
has a different story.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
She was able to tell us that April had gone
into the car happy and smiling, not the running over
and killing her in a car accident how he described.
Speaker 24 (23:09):
We have a witness that was present. This person says
April got into the land Rovern via the driver's door,
which on a normal car would be the right hand side.
But that's really the passenger side door on your car.
(23:32):
That is complete fabrication and light. It can't have happened.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
He is getting angry, but also trying not to show
that anger physically, but it's in his voice.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
He's getting angry.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That was the time for me that I realized how
large and how big Mark Bridger was and how dominating
he would have been with April. Mark is in a
case that what you're telling us didn't quite happen.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
It happened exactly the way I tell you. That person
is lying. I did not attacked. I'd like you to
go away and do the test for the car.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
That's just, oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Police turned to forensics to see if the evidence can
decide did Mark Bridger run April over with the front
of his car or did she climb into the passenger seat,
happy and smiling, as the child witness.
Speaker 25 (24:48):
Claims, this is Mark Bridge's landover. I first I saw
it the day after he was arrested, and I haven't
seen it since then.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
There was two girls on their bikes. There was now sad,
it was now knock, and the vehicle then rose up.
Speaker 25 (25:13):
I removed a bumper because I was concerned about the
damage here. It appeared to be broken, but that was
not recent damage.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
She was limp and felt lifeless, and I crossed a
little body.
Speaker 25 (25:36):
If a small childman hit by one of these vehicles,
I would have caused a lot of injuries. Blood, skin, DNA,
even transfer of fibers from April's clothing. And there was
absolutely nothing. Basically, his story wasn't true. They'd made it up.
(25:58):
They made that up.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
What else in the make up.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
With no obvious evidence of April's death, police can't discount
the possibility that she may still be alive.
Speaker 19 (26:09):
I still was keeping an open mind at that point
in terms of are we still hopefully going to be
finding April, say, if I'm well, you know, in a
hideout or at some location.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
The inquiry team's lead search advisor is Gareth Thomas. He
is now told to step up the search.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Whilst there was a chance that April was alive, you know,
all the stops were were pulled out. It has been
quoted as the largest search in British police and history.
Mountain Rescued and reported that there was the largest search
since lockerby our colleagues from urban Search and Rescue with
(26:50):
the cave rescue teams Coast Guard are in a lie
and when you put all those together with the public
it was massive, absolutely massive.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The area close to Mark Bridges House is giving special attention.
Speaker 6 (27:13):
This is the river just behind Bridges House. River is
a really nautoriously difficult to search because everything's moving very
very dynamic. On three separate occasions, this river was fingertipped
by police divers also professional volunteers such as Mountain Rescue
Fire Service. But five k downstream turns into a tide
(27:35):
less street, so there are many, many difficult areas to
have any sort of high level or confidence in knowing
that April wasn't there.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
It was very very difficult.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
With search teams desperate for a lead, Interviewers try a
new strategy to unlock bridges memory.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
During the interview, we gave him maps even placed on
the walls all around him to try and get him
to sort of visualize certain areas. We were encouraging him
to look at them, getting him to focus on where
possibly that you may have put April.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
You mentioned earlier about hiding her from the rain.
Speaker 17 (28:20):
I wouldn't have buried her.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
I would have capped her or put her somewhere and
the shelter.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Are there locations that are personal and private to you
that you would have laid April?
Speaker 5 (28:32):
There's a cycle track just above my house, but and
I certainly don't recollect being up there.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Despite the new strategy, Bridges still can't or won't reveal
April's whereabouts.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was hugely frustrating. We were desperately trying to work
with each other and trying to find ways of how
were we going to get this information from Mark Bridge.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
There was pressure on us. We're not getting past that
block about what happened after she had died in the car.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Andy John needs answers. He calls in one of Britain's
leading experts on the criminal mind. This is the first
time he's spoken about the case.
Speaker 10 (29:18):
So I first became aware of April Jones's disappearance on
the day after the abduction had taken place.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'd heard about Joe Sullivan. I knew he'd work with
the Madeline McCann, but in particularly the Soer murders.
Speaker 10 (29:34):
My role is to give officers insight into how offenders
of this nature think, and how they process information, and
how they respond to certain types of questions.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Using his expertise, Dr Sullivan now creates a psychological profile
of Bridger.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
One of the first things that I wanted to do
was to see where Mark Bridger lived. As you walked
into the front room, there was a shotgun above the fireplace.
There were replica handguns and two pairs of handcuffs that
were very openly displayed. He had a background in working
in an abattoir. He had a number of knives that
(30:19):
were in the property. He also had quite a number
of books about sas survival techniques and living in the wild,
breathing this impression of himself as some sort of Rambo
type character that suggested that perhaps he was a fantasist,
someone living in a world that he'd created in his
own mind.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Back at the station, Doctor Sullivan briefs the team on
his early findings just as they prepare for the last
interview of the day.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So Joe Sullivan was already piecing together a psychological profile
of Mark Bridge. He told us appealing to his paternal
side possibly wasn't a good idea, but we decided to
go against that really and just give it a go.
We had nothing to lose. The time I might watch
(31:19):
is twenty two hundred hours. This is going to be
the final interview for tonight. Yes, it's been a tough day.
Speaker 17 (31:29):
Okay, obviously she hasn't been found.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
No, she hasn't been found. We need to bring her home.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
I know if I really honestly knew where she was,
I would tell you.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
We've only got your version of events.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
We've only got your word to say that you run
her over and that you've killed her.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
I can promise you would it. She's not alive. I
can't change my story. It's what happened that.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Night, Mark.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We don't want her to suffer anymore. He's a father,
he's got six children. You know he wouldn't want this
to happen to his child. But I was trying to
plead with him, really, you're.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
A parent, Yes, you've got a daughter. Yes, let's think
about a put yourself in their shoes. I had not
pay for hours and hour sat myself.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I really really thought, perhaps yes, this would be the
turning point.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
It doesn't matter what time of the night it is.
Make I will ring the bell, We'll speak to you
and we will sort it.
Speaker 17 (32:49):
I want it sorted.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Mark Bridger has a story and he's sticking to it.
If police are to find April, they need a breakthrough,
I'd promise I.
Speaker 17 (33:00):
Will do ef.
Speaker 12 (33:11):
We moved into Brinagogue in the March of two thousand
and seven.
Speaker 14 (33:17):
April was born.
Speaker 12 (33:18):
I think maybe a week or two later.
Speaker 14 (33:22):
She was premature, seven weeks. She wanted to come out
in this world.
Speaker 13 (33:27):
At a young age, April had miles cereral palsy. She
was so so tiny, we don't know if she'd make it.
It was a really, really rough start to her life.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
By twenty twelve, April was living a happy life with
mum Coral, Dad Paul, and her siblings Harley and Jasmine.
Speaker 14 (33:50):
The happy memories will always be there. Abadve.
Speaker 11 (33:54):
We used to go to a lot, used to go
there for days, out.
Speaker 12 (34:00):
To go into the beach, and someone in the say.
Speaker 11 (34:02):
She was just outgoing, bubbly like a brother's sisters work.
Speaker 14 (34:06):
But she ruled a roost.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Two and a half days since going missing, forty four
police forces are now desperately trying to find April.
Speaker 11 (34:29):
We turned on the TV. I saw David Cameron doing
a speech.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Well, my heart just goes out to April's family and
this is every family's nightmare. Clearly, having this happened to you,
and the fact that she suffered cerebral palsy, something I
know a little about from my own children, only makes
this worse.
Speaker 11 (34:48):
I'd never thought i'd hear a Prime minister told about
me and my family at all.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
My appeal would be, if you know anything, if you
saw anything, heard anything, have any ideas you can bring forward,
talk to the police, help this family find their lovely child.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
Oh so shocked, but so pleased that he had said
something about it.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Five miles north of where the abduction happened, forensic teams
are examining Bridges House.
Speaker 22 (35:22):
The focus for the house was to look for anything
that could indicate April had been present. I asked for
things like drinking vessels to be looked at, had he
provided April with any food, and then to also look
for any blood staining any items of clothing. When they
(35:47):
did this in the bathroom, they did locate some tiny
spots of blood on the bathroom wall. This was fed
back to me. The source of those spots there could
be anybody's and we just need to see if it
matches April or not.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Samples are rushed to the lab. The results won't be
in for twenty four hours. Meanwhile, in Aberystwyth, the questioning
of Mark Bridger enters its third day.
Speaker 20 (36:22):
The investigation team will be interviewing Mark Bridger again today
and we will continue to piece together his movements during
the relevant times and looking to overlay his account with
that that we've gleaned from witnesses.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
One witness reports seeing Bridger the morning after the abduction
close to the river near his home.
Speaker 6 (36:52):
That witness will say that they saw Bridger walk into
his car, describes what appearing to be carrying a plastic
black bag, like what was he doing there, you know,
just a mile away from his warm address, coming out
with the undergrowth. So the theory is that he's either
gone to recover something or he going to place something there.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
The layby is excavated but nothing is found, with nobody
and Bridges sticking firmly to his story. It's a frustrating
time for the detectives.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Just have a look at that, yes, and think where
is Apron?
Speaker 5 (37:30):
I really don't know.
Speaker 8 (37:31):
I can remember going into the canteen and overhearing conversations
about why can't they get in to tell us where
she was? And you know, in my mind, I'm trying,
I'm really trying to get this information out, but it's
just not happening.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Just to remind you, Mark that the red light is on. Obviously,
as we explained, this interview has been monitored.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Bridge's refusal to give up April now hints at a
new and ominous side to his personality.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Joe Sullivan sat us down. He gave a PowerPoint presentation
for about twenty minutes of how to identify and understand
a psychopath.
Speaker 10 (38:08):
I told him that I believed that Mark Bridger probably
had quite a number of psychopathic traits. He was unlikely
to experience an enormous amount of empathy or have any
major sense of guilt about what he had done. Of course,
he will inevitably try to present himself as someone who
does have those characteristics. But the sense that I had
(38:30):
from the information we had gathered even at that time,
was that this is a man who is not going
to respond to an appeal to his better nature.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
The profiles suggests Bridger won't confess, so police must instead
finding consistencies in his story.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The main focus, I think for Joe Sullivan, and the
main focus for everybody in the investigation, was to keep
Mark Bridger talking. The moment that Mark Bridge's stopped talking,
we will not be able to go any further with
the investigation. We would not get any more information out
of him.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
April went missing on Monday evening. Now on Thursday, Andy
John instructs the interviewing team.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Before we start this part of the interview.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I do need to further arrest you, Mark okay, on
suspicion of murder of April Jones on the first of
October twenty twelve.
Speaker 8 (39:31):
There was shock, the physical shock of his body.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
He was now white, he was pale, simply because he
thought we had found her.
Speaker 8 (39:40):
I can remember him turning to his solicitor looking at like, hey,
is this something you haven't told me.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Here there's another significant development. Detectives have found indecent images
on Mark Bridges' laptop.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
And I do have to further arrest you on suspicion
of possession cham pornography.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
You're under caution, okay, Yes.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
There's now a possible sexual motive for the abduction. But crucially,
after three days, police have also given up hope of
finding April alive. It's a turning point in the investigation
and the family need to be told.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
And an agreement with Coral and her husband Paul that
we would always tell them the truth.
Speaker 11 (40:37):
Dave got a place for us to go away from
the press so we didn't have to have the press
surround it all the time, and it has little offices
just up the road from where we live, and we
called it out was Santry Place.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Where are the Coral Bye.
Speaker 18 (40:59):
The day the status of the arrest of Mark Bridger changed,
we went to pick up a pole and Coral to
bring them to the sanctuary and share the information and
it was just life changing.
Speaker 14 (41:13):
It was dreadful.
Speaker 11 (41:18):
To get told it's not aduction case anymore, it's a
murder and and you've got to tell your children.
Speaker 14 (41:37):
They've lost her baby sister.
Speaker 11 (41:48):
Getting told your daughters dead but they don't know where
she is, and that was a harder sin.
Speaker 13 (42:19):
I briefly remember the volunteers have been called back from
search and it was just to be laughed to the professionals.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
It is no longer appropriate for us to expect untrained
members of the public to continue the search.
Speaker 13 (42:36):
They didn't want them to come across the body, and
I still remember people crying and complete strangers just in tears.
Speaker 18 (42:49):
I think the fact that that status had been changed,
that there was no hope really that April was going
to be found alive, which was life changing for Paul
and Carl, for Jasmine and Harley as well.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Police are now sure that Mark Bridger has murdered April,
but after two days of intense interviews, there's still not
enough evidence to charge him.
Speaker 8 (43:14):
There was this facade that he was actually trying to
help us out, but in reality wasn't actually giving us
an awful lot.
Speaker 21 (43:23):
It was an evening or a night shift when he
asked for the Warden Survey map of the area so
we could jog his memory. We'd be checking on him
every fifteen to thirty minutes in his cell and he'd
been lying on the floor to study the map, but
he never came up with anything to say where she was.
Speaker 10 (43:47):
I've no doubt that while he's pawing over the maps
and making it look like he is trying to remember
the location of April's body. What he's actually doing in
his head is trying to second guess worthy interview's got
are going next to what are the sorts of things
that he needs to address and how he needs to
(44:07):
present himself. This is an individual who's very much in
survival mode.
Speaker 17 (44:17):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
It was just another game he was playing with us.
Speaker 17 (44:22):
It was all one big game dame.
Speaker 6 (44:34):
As days went by with less and less hope from
the interview, so we expand our search.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
By Friday, police have identified over six hundred search areas.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
Everything you can see here is part of the search area.
This was a real, real key area for us, and
as you can see, it's heavily sided, steep wooded valleys,
very very difficult to ring. A lot of these areas
are only accessible by officers on ropes working really really carefully.
(45:17):
And it's not just what you can see above the ground.
There's the subterranean element as well, a lot of caves
heavily mined. But you can just see from this high
point er a massive, massive search effort. April is a
five year old, but she was a very really small
five year old. So one thing we had to consider
(45:41):
if he was going to conceal a body that because
april size should be quite easy to conceal, quite easy
to carry a sort of significant distance from a parked vehicle.
He almost told everybody was in the special services, which
has proved not to be the case. But he was
certainly comfortable in the outdoor. We were told that he
(46:01):
worked for the Forestry Commission. He'd worked as a lifeguard.
He worked in an Albertois saw where we were looking
for deposition sites or areas that you may have got
rid of April's bodies. There was a lot of factors
to consider.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
So far, forensics have found no evidence to support Bridge's
story that he ran April over.
Speaker 4 (46:23):
She was lay there on the seat and that's what
I realized one time.
Speaker 5 (46:28):
Her chest wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Forensics have also examined the car's interior. Now police will
confront Bridger with the findings.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
Our forensics guys have examined the vehicle agree on advised
that there is no trace of any blood, There is
no trace of any hair, no trace of any skin mark.
Speaker 8 (46:52):
Bridget was relying on the fact that he'd run over April.
There's this accident, He's done this. He there and picks
her up, puts her into the car and then drives away.
You'd expect to find blood from the injury. Yet the
scientists are turning around saying, hey, we haven't found anything.
Speaker 9 (47:16):
There is no indication whatsoever right of anybody underneath that vehicle.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
That is obviously very very strange, because if I ever
producted her, there would be some sort of hair and
fingerprints and things.
Speaker 9 (47:31):
There's nothing there forensically to right corroborate your account.
Speaker 4 (47:37):
And this is an opportunity for you to try this.
Speaker 17 (47:41):
Let's move to the inside.
Speaker 9 (47:42):
Then, yes, the interior, and again I'm being told that
there is no forensic evidence, no hair, no blood, no nothing.
Speaker 17 (47:54):
There's no blood.
Speaker 5 (47:56):
I didn't feel any blood at that time anyway, there
was nothing that there was nothing visible. There was no
traces of blood on me or her at that time.
Speaker 17 (48:06):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 8 (48:08):
Nobody has seen this accident happen, and the only person
that's saying that there was an accident was him.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Interviewed on suspicion of murdering April Jones, Mark Bridger claims
he tried to save the five year old after injuring
her in a car accident. He also insists there was
no blood on either him or her. Yet blood has
now been found not in bridges car but in his house.
Speaker 22 (48:41):
So roundabout quarter past six on the Friday evening, I
received an email from the lab with the results of
the blood spots from the bathroom wall. These two areas
of apparent blood spatter on the bathroom wall we compared
to the DNA that we'd obtained from April Jones's toothbrush
(49:04):
and it gave a match. Something obviously has happened at
the home address and Mark Bridge.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
And there's more fresh evidence.
Speaker 22 (49:17):
They found a tiny bit of blood on the inside
collar of Bridges' fleece and there was also a DNA
present from April on the inside of his jog in bottoms.
This is definitely a significant point in the investigation. We've
(49:37):
now got a definite link between April and the scene
of Mark Bridge's home address.
Speaker 8 (49:49):
On the second day of having the sanctuary, Andy John
came up and had to tell parents that April's blood
had been identified in Bridges' house.
Speaker 19 (50:00):
I can't begin to imagine what it is like to
have lost a child in such horrific circumstances and the
pain that the family would have suffered at the time.
Speaker 14 (50:11):
I do find the Harness. Time was telling Harley Hears.
Speaker 12 (50:15):
On my bed.
Speaker 11 (50:19):
Like we normally are, because it wouldn't go to bed
until at midnight.
Speaker 14 (50:24):
At the time, I had to tell.
Speaker 11 (50:28):
Him that sister is not coming home.
Speaker 14 (50:38):
She's murdered.
Speaker 11 (50:40):
A scream still today haunts me. Something becomes along like
him and takes the little sister away. It's well, there's
nothing I say about that. Can't you perhaps what I
(51:01):
want to do to him?
Speaker 18 (51:15):
I remember wanting to go home and hug my two
kids closely and be very thankful for what I had
at home. I think it makes you put things into
perspective and realize what is important and what isn't important.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
The discovery of April's blood is a major breakthrough, but
the case is about to enter still darker territory. Bridger's
laptop has now been fully examined. Police hope its contents
will finally force Bridger to reveal the truth.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Friday was the main day that we had to challenge
him on all the sexually explicit material that was recovered
from his computer. It was a tough day myself and
not unexperienced officers. We'd seen, you know, child images before.
We've had to interview child sex offenders before.
Speaker 9 (52:13):
All I want to do is just start going through
some of the images that be recovered.
Speaker 8 (52:18):
Right, Okay, they're difficult interviews to conduct because we're going
to talk about graphic pornographic images of children. It's not
a nice subject at all on any level.
Speaker 5 (52:34):
Tell me what you see thereas it looks like the
four stage of developments of breasts.
Speaker 17 (52:40):
How does that make you feel?
Speaker 5 (52:42):
It doesn't make me feel sexual at all.
Speaker 17 (52:45):
Right, the next image, what do you see there?
Speaker 16 (52:48):
Right?
Speaker 5 (52:48):
Obviously this is a young girl, could be between eight
and twelve. There's nothing sexual about that to me at all.
Speaker 10 (52:58):
He had very clear strategy to distance himself from any
form of sexual arousal to the images that he had
on his computer, because, of course, in his fantasy world,
the rambo esque character that he sees himself as, there's
no room for him being sexually interested in children.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Bridger has shown more images found on his laptop, some
depicting violence and the sexual assault of children.
Speaker 9 (53:26):
What I'm going to do now is turn over to
the next image. It's imaged three brackets fifteen jpeg.
Speaker 17 (53:32):
What's going on there?
Speaker 19 (53:34):
There was also material within the computer of Mark Bridge.
I'ving searched a website relating to child murders and the
most terrific incidents, and do you remember searching for that?
Speaker 17 (53:46):
No, well, they've been typed into the Google search engine.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
I don't remember typing that in a nun.
Speaker 10 (53:50):
I doubt this was somebody who was sexually interested in children.
This was somebody who probably had a long standing sexual
interest in children.
Speaker 17 (53:59):
I will conclude this.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
You know, after almost four hours the interview ends.
Speaker 8 (54:05):
The case itself is starting to look like it's a
sexually motivated child murder.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Police believe they have a motive, but still there's no
body and there's now only a few hours before Bridge's
custody clock runs out.
Speaker 19 (54:24):
I was very aware of the fact that we had
potentially a maximum of ninety six hours in which he
could investigate the matter's Rice Mack Bridger was in custody.
Speaker 8 (54:32):
The significance of the custody clock is that when it
reaches zero, you have to either have charged the suspect
or he walks out at the police station.
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Mark Bridger has now been in custody for three and
a half days. If he's not charged within the next
few hours, he could walk.
Speaker 8 (55:00):
I can vividly remember how anxious Coral was. She was
frightened that he wasn't going to be charged because if
he wasn't charged, as we kept telling her, the law said,
he had to be released.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
The decision whether or not to charge Mark Bridger will
be made by the Crown Prosecution Service, but first they
must wait for one last interview, hoping that DC's Louise
Thomas and Noel Blakeman can finally crack their suspect.
Speaker 9 (55:30):
You can tell me where she is, don't you know
where the body is?
Speaker 1 (55:37):
No?
Speaker 17 (55:38):
Where she is? Did you intend murder?
Speaker 4 (55:42):
Now?
Speaker 1 (55:43):
This last interview really is the last throw at the dice.
It's what we call the challenge, and it's a summary
really of everything that we've gone through for that week,
and it's a challenge of all the inconsistencies that we
were able to put to him. I mean, ultimately, our
case stood on my bridges word against a child witness,
and she was able to tell us that April Jones
(56:05):
got into that car willingly. There was no evidence of
a road traffic accident. There was no blood or anything
of that of April Jones in the vehicle outside the vehicle,
and we had April Jones's DNA on certain garments he'd
been wearing.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
Forensic tests have also proved that blood found in the
house is Aprils.
Speaker 8 (56:28):
It's gold dust. We've got blood in his bathroom from April.
Speaker 17 (56:36):
Blood has been found on the wall of the bathroom
at your house, right.
Speaker 9 (56:40):
And this blood gives a full DNA profile of April Jones.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
The only explanation I've got is, obviously, if I've got
blood on my hands, if I haven't dried my hands,
you flick your hands. I've gone for a week.
Speaker 8 (56:55):
Within seconds, and he goes, that must have been when
I was drying my hands. I just dried my hands
like this.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
He was quite animated in how he was recreating the
washing of the hands and the possibility of flicking.
Speaker 5 (57:13):
So it's possibly a transfer of blood from having some
sort of blood in my hands.
Speaker 8 (57:21):
But there was no blood in the car. You said
you didn't find any visible blood on you or anything.
I must have been mistaken. Clearly there was, was his response.
Speaker 3 (57:33):
Faced with damning evidence, still, Bridger refuses to flinch.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
Obviously, there was only a very minute amount of blood,
which I've said from the beginning, I never ever recalled
having blood from the injury or from April's yes.
Speaker 9 (57:50):
Sorry, yes, the question I have to ask, yes, yeah,
there's that blood there because April was assaulted in the bathroom.
Speaker 5 (57:59):
Not at all, not that I recollect at all. No.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
DC Blakeman now moves on to the evidence found on
Mark bridges laptop.
Speaker 9 (58:09):
We're obviously concerned that you have a sexual interest in children.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
I haven't got any interest in children.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
We knew that we had found child pornography on his computers,
and we knew that he'd been viewing them moments and
days leading up to what had happened to April Jones.
Speaker 9 (58:28):
And you viewed all these pointers within minutes of each other.
Were you masturbating to these photographs?
Speaker 3 (58:35):
No?
Speaker 17 (58:35):
Is this a build up? Is this what was happening
that morning a build up of sexual frustration? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (58:41):
Why hasn't it built up before?
Speaker 16 (58:43):
Then?
Speaker 17 (58:43):
Maybe the opportunity hasn't arisen.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Well, maybe it's just shit.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
He did not like to be depicted as a pedophile
and somebody that was looking images for sexual gratification of children.
That's when it became argumentative that when we saw the
real Mark Bridger.
Speaker 9 (59:03):
Explain to me how and why you sexually assaulted April.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
I'm just not sexually assault April. There was no sexual
assault on April.
Speaker 17 (59:14):
Did you suffocate her?
Speaker 5 (59:15):
No?
Speaker 17 (59:16):
Did you use a sharp weapon?
Speaker 5 (59:18):
Now all my knives can be checked.
Speaker 9 (59:21):
All of the evidence we have suggests that you have
abducted and murdered April with a sexual motive.
Speaker 17 (59:29):
Therefore, the reason that you're not telling us where the body.
Speaker 9 (59:32):
Is is because the discovery of her body will provide
the evidence of this.
Speaker 17 (59:38):
Is this not the case.
Speaker 5 (59:39):
This is not the case. Tom. I have stuck by
my story and I still stick by my story that
April's body was crushed under my wheel of my car.
Speaker 9 (59:49):
Unless there's anything else that you want to say, I'm
going to conclude this interview now.
Speaker 5 (59:54):
All I want to say to Bawl and Carl and
I'm sorry what happened, and that if I, in my
heart knew where Shews have ad tellent.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
As the interview ends, police are already in final negotiations
with the Crown Prosecution Service.
Speaker 8 (01:00:19):
And just over an hour after that we were charging
him with the murder of April Jones.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
I charged him with three counts, one for murder, one
for child abduction, and one for perverting the course of justice.
There was no emotion, no emotion. What's whatsoever coming from
Mark Roger.
Speaker 19 (01:00:54):
He was charged with the murder and abduction of April Jones.
Speaker 14 (01:01:02):
I was just pleased. I was so happy, I cried.
Speaker 19 (01:01:08):
He presented himself to the next available court, which was
on the following Monday.
Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
It's seven days since April went missing.
Speaker 11 (01:01:19):
People were throwing cans and all sorts of the van
at him, and people.
Speaker 14 (01:01:28):
Were going mad. That's people I didn't even know.
Speaker 11 (01:01:34):
Were outraged by him for what he's done.
Speaker 18 (01:02:31):
I don't think anybody could have prepared us, really for
the reaction that we had. When the guilty verdict came in.
Speaker 11 (01:02:40):
It was the best news I ever had. It was
so overwhelming that he's never coming out. He can't hurt
no more children.
Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
In court, Bridger again claimed that April had died in
a terrible accident. Instead, the evidence showed him to be
a premeditated killer and pedophile had been on the prowl
for a young girl.
Speaker 10 (01:03:06):
There may be sadistic elements to his personality, whereby he
enjoys the distress that he causes to others. He probably
was someone who had fantasized about abducting and murdering a child.
He certainly was primed and ready for that opportunity, and
that was something he'd visualized in his head and something
that he wanted to happen.
Speaker 19 (01:03:32):
I believe that April was taken by Mark Bridger to
his home address, and there April may well have been
subjected to sexual acts and then subsequently suffered significant harm
which led to her death. I believe that parts of
April may have been disposed of in the wood burner
and elsewey within the machantletheria.
Speaker 14 (01:04:01):
I don't know what April is. I wish I did.
Speaker 22 (01:04:08):
I know they had a phunroll for her with the
fragments from the fire year, but they didn't have her.
And for me, I just wish that he would come
forward and give that information because it must be heartbreaking
for them not knowing what's happened to their little girl.
Speaker 12 (01:04:30):
You think about April every day.
Speaker 13 (01:04:32):
It's never thought that she's gone that you never not
think about her.
Speaker 12 (01:04:39):
You could just be.
Speaker 13 (01:04:39):
Doing the most simplest things. You start watching TVN and like, oh, yeah,
she'd like this, or you see kids playing out and like,
oh yeah, April should.
Speaker 12 (01:04:47):
Be that ape. She's always on your mind. She's just there.
Speaker 8 (01:04:55):
For us. I suppose there's unfinished business, isn't there There
was no body. Despite searching, we had not located her.
We didn't as interviewers. We haven't got him to say
where she was.
Speaker 11 (01:05:14):
I have been told that a lot feel guilty that
never found April. They've got nothing to feel guilty about.
We've got him behind bards and I'm thankful for what
they've done.
Speaker 14 (01:05:26):
We haven't got April. Is sad.
Speaker 11 (01:05:31):
I don't remember the sad days. I just want to
remember the happy, go lucky little April she was.
Speaker 21 (01:06:01):
You gotta give difficulty.
Speaker 15 (01:06:03):
They look at anything
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!