April Jones' Sister Breaks Silence After 14 Years, Demands Killer Suffer in Prison
Fourteen years after the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones, her older sister Hazel Jones is speaking publicly for the very first time. Hazel, now 31, describes how the tragedy tore her family apart and expresses her firm belief that Mark Bridger, the man convicted of killing April, should be made to "suffer" throughout his life sentence.
A Nation's Hope Turns to Heartbreak
On October 1, 2012, April Jones vanished while playing on her pink bicycle just yards from her home in the quiet Welsh town of Machynlleth. What followed was one of the biggest child search operations in UK history, involving thousands of volunteers, sniffer dogs, helicopters, and a nation holding its breath. Despite this enormous effort, hope soon turned to heartbreak when it became clear April had been abducted and murdered. Her body has never been found, with only fragments of her remains discovered in Bridger's cottage.
"He Deserves Everything He's Getting"
Hazel Jones breaks her silence as Bridger faces his second prison attack last month. "He deserves everything he's getting. He literally deserves it all," Hazel states unequivocally. She also strongly supports proposals to chemically castrate sex offenders, declaring: "Chemically castrating paedophiles is 100 percent right. I'm so backing that."
While many commenters on news articles advocate for the death penalty, Hazel disagrees: "They should be made to suffer. The death penalty is an easy way out. He didn't give April an easy way out did he? Make him suffer, make him live every day because he's not coming out. Make him live in fear."
A Family Shattered by Tragedy
Hazel, who was 18 and heavily pregnant when April disappeared, describes how the trauma has fundamentally shaped her life and cast a long shadow over her own children's future. "I have never spoken out once," she reveals. "Only because I was mourning the loss of my sister and the actual ordeal of what happened. I felt like I was just in a nightmare, ready to wake up. And you just don't wake up from it."
She remembers the exact moment she learned her half-sister was missing: "I was at my own home in Aberaeron with my mother and my mum came up to me and says 'April's missing'. And I was just like what? And she says it again, 'Hazel, April's missing.' And it just took a couple of seconds that felt like bloody minutes to actually process what the hell she was saying. I was just in shock."
Last Memories and Unbearable Loss
Fondly recalling her final moments with April just days before the tragedy, Hazel shares: "She was in the kitchen, she was with my dad and they were making hot chocolate, and laughing. She was wearing army pyjamas. I don't know why I remember these little details but I do. But that was the last time I ever saw her. I wish I knew that was going to be my last ever time having a normal life."
The horror truly sank in the following day: "The next day came and then I think it fully sunk in that oh my god she's actually really missing isn't she? She's not just gone for a little wander, she's actually really missing. It was so overwhelming the actual thought of it."
Media Frenzy and Personal Turmoil
In the days that followed, Hazel tried to shield herself from the intense media attention, focusing instead on her pregnancy while clinging to fading hope. "The media attention was really bloody horrible, especially those first few months," she recalls. "I would wake up and there would just be press outside my door. I was being followed, messaged, and called 24/7. I would wake up, open the curtains and there would be people outside my door wanting to talk to me. I never did. I chose not to."
When she learned the full truth about what happened to April, Hazel was "petrified" as an expectant mother: "I was so scared because I was carrying my daughter at the time and I was so scared to bring her into this world knowing that there was people like that on our doorstep. It really puts it into perspective that you can't trust anyone."
Birth Amidst Grief and Family Resemblance
Just weeks later, Hazel gave birth to her daughter Amelia - a moment that should have been filled with joy but was instead tangled in grief and disbelief. "It was surreal because when Dad and Coral came to see her in the hospital when she was first born, they were just shocked because she looked like April," Hazel remembers. "It was so difficult because I had just lost my sister and just given birth. I was trying to mourn my sister but also love my new daughter."
Parenting Through Trauma and Fear
Now a mother of three children - Amelia (12), Ethan (9), and Hefin (6) - Hazel says the anxiety has never fully dissipated. "My daughter is coming to the age of 13, she'll be going into year eight this year and she wants to go and do stuff with her friends," she explains. "I don't know how I'm meant to let her grow up. Because I am quite scared of who is even around, who can you actually trust? Is there anyone watching you? Is there anyone following you? And it's scary. The world we live in is literally so scary."
When her daughter was five - the same age April was when she vanished - the parallels were particularly painful: "I was like oh my god this is the age April was when she went." Hazel adds that April bore a striking resemblance to her daughter at that age, making the grief even more difficult to bear.
Family Fractures and Additional Loss
The tragedy left deep scars on the wider family, with relationships fracturing over time. Some relatives no longer speak today - a stark reflection of how such a devastating event can tear a family apart at its seams.
Earlier this year, the family suffered another profound loss when Hazel's father, Paul Jones, died on May 14 without ever discovering where April was buried. Paul had been diagnosed with a brain disease in 2018, six years after his daughter's death. "My dad was never right after April," Hazel reflects. "Once April went, a part of him went completely and he never came back from that. All I think is that he is now back with April and back to a peaceful life. Him passing was just like a part of me went too. I fought for him for so long."
A Nightmare That Never Ends
Even now, more than a decade later, Hazel says what happened to her sister still doesn't feel real. "It's been 13 years now and it's still not actually sunk in. I still don't believe it. I don't know whether I don't want to believe it but I just don't believe it happened to us. I'm still waiting to wake up from this nightmare."
Hazel has been honest with her children about what happened to April, keeping a box of memories and newspaper clippings they can examine when they're ready. "I have never hid it away from my kids and I won't hide it away," she states firmly. "At the end of the day it's real life, it has happened and I want them to be wary of their own selves."
Through her heartbreaking account, Hazel Jones gives voice to a family's enduring pain while advocating for justice that involves suffering rather than release for those who commit such horrific crimes against children.
