Shock after tributes removed from scene of horror crash which killed four young people
Personal items left in tribute to four young people who died in a crash have disappeared from the tree they were attached to.
Four people died after a yellow Skoda Fabia crashed into the tree in Kingswinford, on October 13.
Dozens of floral tributes, messages and personalised items were left on the tree and underneath it in Bromley Lane, some of which have now been taken down.
Andrea Williams, the mother of Nathan Cartwright, who died from his injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital four days later, said she was "absolutely gutted" as some of the items are irreplaceable.
Joshua Parkes, Lucy Tibbetts and Isabelle Floyd were pronounced dead at the scene and a 16-year-old girl was still in hospital at the end of October.
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Miss Williams said: "There were things attached to the actual tree, number plates with their names, personal items that can't be replaced and we don't know who has taken it down.
"There was a hat that someone had come from Stoke to put there, we want it all back.
"If somebody had said we need to take them down we would have.
"I've been told it was taken on Sunday night between 7.15pm and 8pm.
"We've asked the people in nearby houses as they had CCTV of the crash but they said it's not working now.
"I don't think they had a problem with it as long as it's kept tidy.
"There were photos in picture frames, everything at the bottom of the tree they left, they only took stuff on the tree.
"At this time of year too, his friends are absolutely gutted and I am as well.
"To do it two days after Christmas, we just want the stuff back.
"It's pretty shocking. Somebody could have had the courtesy to say."
The inquest into their deaths was opened and adjourned at the end of October pending a police investigation.
More than £11,000 was raised for the four victims whose families paid moving tributes to them. A fundraiser had also been set up for the surviving passenger.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has launched an investigation into the level of involvement of West Midlands Police after the force said the Skoda had come to the attention of officers before the crash happened.
West Midlands Police, which is conducting its own investigation, said the police car wasn’t in the “immediate vicinity” of the Skoda at the point of collision.
