OUR story about a letter for missing schoolgirl April Jones which turned up in a garden in Cwmbran was our most read story on our website in 2012.

More than 32,000 people read on southwalesargus.co.uk how Vanessa O’Connor, 55, spotted a deflated balloon with a letter attached to it on her lawn in Bowleaze, Greenmeadow, Cwmbran in October this year.

Our liveblog of the Nikitta Grender murder trial in February was the next most read.

21,399 people followed our coverage as killer Carl Whant, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years after being found guilty of the rape and murder of pregnant teenager Nikitta Grender and her unborn baby Kelsey-May.

The Argus later received a commendation for best use of social media at a national media awards for its online coverage of the case.

Newport people's reaction to the controversial Channel 4 documentary Bouncers completed the top 3, with 20,672 views, while the shock death of popular Llantarnam School pupil, Amber Tainton and our story on how a man’s body had been found in woods in Ringland, Newport rounded off the top five most read.

The Grender trial coverage also dominated the list of most Tweeted stories with two separate stories on the trial filling the top two spots.

The Bouncers story was the next most Tweeted ahead of the story of how TV’s Top Gear team raced mobility scooters through Abergavenny and Milo the ‘talking’ Cwmbran Husky.

And on our Facebook page the Grender trial again filled three of the top five spots, including number one, in the list of most liked stories on our page.

Cwmbran’s big bang was the second most liked, after a suspected meteorite sped over the region while "Trevethin boy 3 was kept in cell and rescued hours from death" was number 5.