April Jones' Sister: 'The World Is So Scary - I'm Waiting to Wake Up from the Nightmare'
Thirteen years after the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones, her older sister Hazel Jones has spoken publicly about how the tragedy continues to haunt her family. Hazel, now 31, describes living in constant fear for her own children and the lasting trauma that has shaped their lives.
A Family Forever Changed
April Jones was playing on her pink bicycle near her home in the quiet Welsh town of Machynlleth on October 1, 2012, when she was abducted. Local man Mark Bridger was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. Despite extensive search efforts, April's body was never fully recovered, with only fragments found at Bridger's cottage.
Hazel Jones, who was 18 and heavily pregnant at the time of her half-sister's disappearance, remembers the moment she learned April was missing with chilling clarity. "I was at my own home in Aberaeron with my mother when she came up to me and said April's missing," Hazel recalls. "It took a couple of seconds that felt like minutes to process what she was saying. I was just in shock."
Living with Constant Fear
Now a mother of three children - Amelia, 13, Ethan, 10, and Hefin, 6 - Hazel describes how the trauma has fundamentally altered her approach to parenting. "After April, I'm petrified to let my kids go out and grow up and start having their own lives," she admits. "When my daughter was five, I was like 'oh my god, this is the age April was when she went.'"
Hazel's daughter Amelia recently turned 13 and wants to spend more time with friends, but her mother struggles with anxiety. "I don't know how I'm meant to let her grow up," Hazel says. "Because I am quite scared of who is even around, who can you actually trust? Is there anyone watching you? The world we live in is literally so scary."
Grief Intertwined with New Life
Just weeks after April's disappearance, Hazel gave birth to her daughter Amelia - a moment that should have been joyful but was instead tangled in grief. "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."
The resemblance between Amelia and April at the same age made the grief particularly difficult to bear. "She had only been on this earth for five years," Hazel says of her sister. "I remember looking at her thinking you have not even experienced life yet, and that was taken away from April."
Honesty with the Next Generation
Hazel has chosen to be open with her children about what happened to their aunt. She maintains a box of memories and newspaper clippings about April that her children can explore when they're ready. "I have never hid it away from my kids and I won't hide it away," she explains. "At the end of the day it's real life, it has happened and I want them to be wary of their own selves."
Despite her fears, Hazel wants her children to experience the world. "I do want my daughter to see the world and have everything that April couldn't," she says.
Additional Family Tragedy
Earlier this year, the family suffered another devastating loss when Hazel's father, Paul Jones, died on May 14 after being diagnosed with a brain disease in 2018. "My dad was never right after April," Hazel reveals. "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."
Thirteen Years of Unreality
Even after more than a decade, Hazel struggles to accept what happened to her family. "It's been 13 years now and it's still not actually sunk in," she confesses. "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."
Regarding April's killer, who was attacked in prison last year for a second time, Hazel says: "He deserves everything he's getting. He literally deserves it all."
The legacy of April Jones' murder continues to reverberate through her family, with Hazel's testimony revealing how such tragedies create ripples of fear and trauma that extend far beyond the initial event, shaping how survivors view the world and protect their own families for years to come.
