The mother and stepfather of a five-year-old boy found dead in a river near his home are “good parents who love their children”, friends in the community have said.
Logan Mwangi was found in the river near his home in Sarn, Bridgend in south Wales on Saturday morning.
The schoolboy — who was also known as Logan Williamson — was reported missing at around 5.45am on Saturday and when police attended the home they found his body in the River Ogmore, very close to the property’s front door.
Logan was taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, where it was confirmed that he had died. The following day detectives arrested two adults and a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of murder.
Family friends said Logan had recently returned from a family trip to Blackpool with Angharad Williamson, his mother, and Jay Cole, his stepfather. The family caught Covid-19 while they were away and their last day of self-isolation was on Saturday, when Logan was found dead.
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Rhiannon Hales, 26, a friend of Williamson, said she received an urgent telephone call at 6am on Saturday to say that Logan had been taken to the Princess of Wales Hospital. She went with Williamson while Cole, a carer, stayed at home with the couple’s 18-month-old son.
Hales said Williamson collapsed when, soon after they arrived in hospital, doctors told her that Logan could not be saved. Hales said she was “totally baffled” by the tragedy.
“I’m her closest friend so I know her well,” Hales said of Williamson. “They are good parents who love their children and bring them up well. My little girl is also five and she loved Logan, they were like little boyfriend and girlfriend together.
“I’m shocked and just devastated by what’s happened, he called me Auntie Rhi, but Logan was like my own little boy. He was such a happy kid and always said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. He loved colouring and did all the coronavirus posters in the front window of their flat.”
Logan had been living on the edge of Pandy Park, in Sarn, with his mother for about three years. The front window was filled with children’s drawings, including NHS rainbows and an Easter bunny. Neighbours said Logan’s mother was the main occupier but Cole also lived there and the couple had a baby daughter together in January last year.
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Specially trained officers supported the family after Logan’s death and on Saturday night detectives said they were “keeping an open mind” as to what had happened.
On Sunday night South Wales Police announced that they had arrested a 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of Logan’s murder. They are being held at separate police stations and social services have been called in because of the age of the youngest suspect. The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is ten.
A South Wales Police spokesman said: “We are not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident.”
Throughout Monday, shocked local families paid tribute to Logan by laying flowers and toys near the shallow river where he was found.
Logan’s best friend from school, a five-year-old girl, arrived at the scene with her tearful mother to lay a card saying “I love you” on the heap of soft toys.
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Her mother, who did not want to be named, said: “Logan was very smart, intelligent, happy and polite. He was in the same school as my daughter and for the last few weeks he had Covid and was self-isolating. He was lovely — he had a smile that would light up the world.”