'No end date' in search for April Jones's body

The parents of missing five-year-old April Jones thanked police in Wales on Wednesday as officers vowed to keep searching for her body until they have “exhausted all lines of enquiry.”

With the search being scaled down over Christmas, Coral and Paul Jones said it would be “a particularly difficult time” but added they would “acknowledge the festive season as best as we can” for their two other children.

Hundreds of police officers and volunteers from mountain rescue teams have taken part in the search around April’s home town of Machynlleth in Powys, mid-Wales, since she went missing on October 1.

April, a cerebral palsy sufferer, was last seen getting into a vehicle. She had been riding her bike close to the family’s home.

Local man Mark Bridger, 47, was later charged with her abduction and murder in but her body has not been found.

“It has been ten weeks since April, our beautiful little girl, was taken from us and the pain of our tragic loss doesn?t get any easier to bear,” Coral and Paul Jones said in a statement Wednesday.

“We are extremely grateful to Dyfed Powys Police for their continued efforts to find April.

“The dedication and determination shown by the search teams who have come from all over the UK has been truly amazing.”

Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed that the search for April would continue.

“We will keep looking until we are satisfied that we have exhausted all lines of enquiry,” the force said in a statement.

“We are not putting an end date on the operation, and we are not willing to speculate how much longer it will last, but we will say that we are committed to stay here until we can be sure that there are no more viable places to look for April?s body.”

The force described the search as “one of the largest search operations in the UK in police history.”

They said the search in the past week had involved “sixteen search teams, comprising of a search leader and six officers” along with “twelve CSI dogs with their handlers out on the mountain and valleys in and around Machynlleth.”