Questions grow over why it took officers 48 hours to find five young revellers ... trends now

Police were facing questions last night about how five young people lay undiscovered for two days after going missing during a night out with local search parties claiming they discovered the grim accident in St Mellons, Cardiff 'before authorities.'

The bodies of Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24, were pulled from the wreckage of a car yesterday morning – 46 hours after they were last seen.

Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were found alive, having spent two days critically injured next to their dead friends. 

As they fought for their lives in hospital last night, Ms Russon's mother told how she had spent two days driving around South Wales frantically searching for her daughter after, she claimed, police told her to 'stop calling'. 

Anna Certowicz, 41, said she drove past the site where the white VW Tiguan was found three times in her desperate hunt, passing within 20 yards of the SUV that was hidden by trees.

Meanwhile, other volunteers who had joined the search for the missing five have said the fact a dogwalker found the wreckage before police 'speaks volumes.' 

Mother-of-three Anna was one of 200 people out searching for Sophie, her friends Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, and two men named as Rafel Jeanne, 24, and Shane Loughlin, 32. 

She revealed that her daughter was 'conscious some of the time' in the car after it ran off the A48 in Cardiff and had 'called out but no one was close enough to hear her.' 

She told MailOnline: 'I feel terrible for the families of Eve and Darcy, they were all best friends and had known each other since they were small', adding the only people who knew what happened were her daughter and the other survivor Shane, who only met the girls for the first time on Friday night.

Sophie is critical but stable in hospital and undergoing surgery for a bleed on the brain and fractures to her neck, spine, and face. 

Ms Certowicz said: 'It's too awful to imagine what she went through trapped in the car in the dark until it got light and then dark again over two days. Sophie was lying there for all that time, they could all have been found much quicker if the police had started searching straight away.'

Ms Certowicz says police didn't take her seriously when she told them her daughter Sophie, 20, was missing after a night out on Friday and fobbed off her concerns by telling her she was 'probably out partying'. 

Bank worker Sophie was eventually found and cut out of the VW Tiguan where she spent two days knowing her friends were dead alongside her.

Miss Smith and Mr Jeanne died in the crash in the early hours of Saturday morning. Anna said the only people who knew what happened were her daughter and the other survivor Shane Loughlin.

All five victims who had been out together in Cardiff and Newport were found shortly after midnight last night.

Anna has hit out at Gwent Police for not responding urgently when the five were reported missing.

She said: 'They didn't take it seriously, they kept saying she's 20 and they are all probably out partying.

'I told them my daughter doesn't go out on three day benders - she and her friends are good girls. It was out of character for all of them.

'I was ringing the police all through Saturday and Sunday but they didn't seem bothered.

'Then all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, but the police started ringing me asking for a photograph and a description.'

A police helicopter was launched to search for the missing five but the car was found by a young woman out searching for the group.

Anna said: 'We all knew it was something serious, all their phones went off line at the same time.

'But the police didn't listen, they didn't want to know, it's disgraceful'.

Anna said she and other parents were kept waiting for two hours at the scene where they could hear firemen cutting up the car to reach the victims inside.

She said: 'No one came over to tell us what was going on, it's a parents worst nightmare but we didn't get any support.

'It wasn't even the helicopter who found them even though it flew over a few times.

'It was one of the volunteer searchers with a dog, if she hadn't gone into the trees they would still be there now.'

Speaking at the scene, a friend of the three girls claimed it was members of the public searching who found them and not the police.

Tamzin Samuels, 20, said: 'I do think the police could have done a lot more in putting the helicopters out earlier.

'They only posted the appeal an hour before the girls were found. We found them before the police found them - we rang the police.

'The search party found the girls before the police found the girls.

'I think that speaks volumes really, they had all that equipment, and we had cars when we were looking.

'They were really popular girls, the life of the party, and it was really out of character for them to do what they did, which is why we knew something was wrong.'

Gwent Police has been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct who will carry out an investigation.

Anna said the car landed on its front and was tilted up in the air with Sophie, a trainee manager with Lloyds Bank, trapped by her seat belt which caused her burn injuries.

She said: 'I have seen her in hospital, she's all tubed up and we still don't know if she's going to survive. The next 48 hours are critical.'

Anna said she has been told three of the people inside the car died on impact but added that the only people who knew what happened were her daughter and the other survivor Shane Loughlin.

Mr Loughlin, a father who runs a bouncy castle hire company in Cardiff, is also on the critical list the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.