Twenty five years on, what happened to Richey Edwards?

It was on January 31 1995 at age 27 that Richard or "Richey" Edwards was last seen.

25 years later and questions about what happened to the Manic Street Preachers guitarist remain unanswered.

Richey, who was raised in Caerphilly, was last seen on CCTV in London exactly two-and-a-half decades ago but his car was later found near the Severn Bridge.

His sister, Rachel, has continued to raise awareness of the issues caused when a loved one goes missing and played a major part in campaigning for the Guardianship Act.

The Act became law in 2019 and allows relatives to manage their missing person’s finances.

When Richey Edwards disappeared, it was just before the band was due to make a promotional trip to America.

He is thought to have been staying in the Embassy Hotel in London and he was last seen on CCTV in the city.

His car was found two weeks later at a service station near the Severn Bridge.

In 2018, new information concerning what time Richey was at the bridge came to light. His sister was hopeful that this could bring fresh leads.

Rachel spoke to ITV Cymru Wales at the time and said that they were told Richard had crossed the Severn Bridge at 2:55pm but it was actually at 2:55am - according to the toll booth receipt.

She said: "we were led to believe there was an eight hour window between his time of departing the hotel to crossing the Bridge on that same day.

“But it’s since come to light by tracking down the person who made the [bridge’s time recording] machines and making enquiries that that was a 24-hour clock, it always was. So that meant 2:55 was 2:55am.

“So we were appealing to people to have seen him at certain times that day when actually those times are meaningless now.

“We are hoping that it will establish a new line of enquiry because this is vital information that changes everything and turns it all on its head and needs to be looked at again.”

However, since then the trail has remained cold. No body has ever been found and people have only been able to speculate as to what happened to Richey all those years ago.

Richey grew up in Blackwood and went on to study at Swansea University in 1986 - about the same time the Manic Street Preachers formed.

Richey joined the band shortly after their first single. He was a lyricist for the group as well as a guitarist and wrote most of the songs on their third album, The Holy Bible.

The band have been nominated for and won several awards. They won Best British Group and British Album of the Year at The Brit Awards in 1997.

The group are still performing together and are playing several UK gigs in June 2020.