Four teenagers drowned in fatal car crash in north Wales, coroner says

Inquests into the deaths of school students opened on Wednesday
Michael Howie29 November 2023

Four teenagers drowned after the vehicle they were travelling in left a road in North Wales, a coroner has said.

The inquests into the deaths of Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Fitchett, 17, and Hugo Morris, 18, all from the Shropshire area, were opened and adjourned on Wednesday.

None of the teenagers' families attended the brief four-minute hearing in which Kate Robertson, HM Coroner for North West Wales, stated the provisional cause of their deaths was drowning.

A major search was launched for the sixth form students after they failed to return home from an overnight camping trip to the Snowdonia area.

Their bodies were discovered on Tuesday November 21 after their silver Ford Fiesta had left the A4085, overturned and was partially submerged in water, North Wales Police previously said.

Clockwise from top left: Wilf Fitchett, Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen and Hugo Morris
North Wales Police/ES composite

On Wednesday, coroner Ms Robertson said the students were all formally identified to police by family members.

She said: "The four young men were travelling in a vehicle along the A4085 at Llanfrothen when the vehicle has left the road. The circumstances of which resulted in the deaths of all four occupants.

"Post-mortem examinations have been undertaken and the provisional causes of death provided, pending inquests."

A police investigation remains ongoing, she said.

Ms Robertson concluded: "I offer the families my sincerest condolences.

"These inquests will be adjourned pending completion of those further investigations."

No date has been set for the full hearings.

North Wales Police has appealed for dashcam footage from anyone travelling on the A4085 between Penrhyndeudraeth and Beddgelert in either direction between 11am on November 19 and 10am on November 21.

The owner of a farm where the four teenage boys' bodies were found said they were "so unlucky".

She said: "There is never a time to lose a child but this feels so much more gut-wrenching as he was literally thriving in life and had everything to live for."

Wilf’s girlfriend, Maddi Corfield, posted a tribute online, writing: "I love you so much, I’m going to miss you forever.

"The sweetest and most loving boy I’ve ever known. I hope you know how much I love you, gorgeous."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in