A grieving mother has condemned South Wales Police for refusing to treat her son’s death as suspicious despite what she characterises as sinister circumstances surrounding the discovery of his body in a Merthyr Tydfil pond hours after his car was involved in a police chase.
Jaya Bouchard’s 21-year-old son Brad Hawkins—father to two young boys aged four and one—was found deceased at Dowlais duck pond on 24 February, with his ransacked vehicle, missing personal belongings and phone discovered in bushes away from his body fuelling maternal suspicions that he was murdered.
“I wanted the police to treat his death as suspicious but they wouldn’t,” Ms Bouchard stated six weeks after the tragedy that she says has “destroyed” her family’s lives, adding: “Maybe if we had answers then we could grieve properly, but I’m so consumed with trying to find out what happened to him.”
Authorities maintain the death remains unexplained rather than suspicious, though they continue investigating whilst seeking public assistance identifying a dark grey Audi A3 spotted in the Brecon Road, Walk and Pant areas between 12.30am and 1.30am that fatal morning.
Ms Bouchard’s suspicions centre on numerous unexplained elements: Brad’s watch, chain, coat and car keys all vanished, his vehicle interior was ransacked with belongings “thrown everywhere,” and only circumstantial evidence places him at the scene alive.
“There’s no proof of any of that, there’s no actual proof that Brad was even alive going there, or whether he was driving the car,” she stated, questioning the account provided by another boy—whom Brad had only met that weekend—who claimed they fled the vehicle together before Brad returned for phones and subsequently disappeared.
“As a mother you get a gut feeling and my feeling was that he wasn’t driving that car and that somebody put him in the water, but obviously we don’t have any proof of that,” Ms Bouchard explained, adding: “It just feels sinister.”
Police ruled out suicide—a conclusion the mother agrees with given Brad’s devotion to sons Greyson and Hudson: “He wouldn’t have done that, I mean, he’s got two young boys.”
The family possesses minimal CCTV footage showing Brad’s movements, with his whereabouts after approximately 10.30pm remaining unknown despite Ms Bouchard’s claims police promised appealing publicly for dashcam or surveillance evidence.
“Police told me they would appeal to the public for CCTV or dashcam footage but they haven’t. I hope someone reading this may see it and can give us some answers,” she stated.
Thursday’s funeral filled two chapels with overflow crowds watching via external screens, testament to the popularity of the “cheeky,” hardworking young man Ms Bouchard described as her “best friend” who had returned living with her seven months prior.
