Catherine O'Sullivan, the mother of missing Jack O'Sullivan, has claimed that police have not examined a piece of evidence the family consider vital. Jack, 22, vanished in the early hours of Saturday, March 2, 2024, after attending a house party three miles from his home in Flax Bourton, Somerset. Extensive searches have found no trace of him since.
Mother's appeal on This Morning
In March, Catherine, originally from Neath, marked her third Mother's Day without her son. She appeared on ITV's This Morning to continue her search. She told the show: "The narrative in our minds had been very firmly placed [by police] that Jack had fallen in the water."
That was until CCTV footage was discovered which Mrs O'Sullivan said showed her son walking over a bridge over the top of the river and not alongside it. She said: "The last sighting of Jack is very significant to me because he is nowhere near the water and in an area with lots of traffic and lots of vehicles going past but it was recognised far too late and opportunities were lost."
Harbourmaster's report dismissed
A harbourmaster came forward with a report he compiled independently, based on the evening in question, which disagreed with the police's assessment. Mrs O'Sullivan said: "The gentleman that contacted us said: 'I can't really sit back and see this play out the way it appears to when my calculations would tell me something completely different'. Reading that report it was very conclusive that the evidence tells you that nobody has ever entered the water in that area who has not been found and that really speaks volumes for us.
"The harbourmaster's report was factual information based on the time that Jack was last seen and the depth of what the water would have been like. We took the report to them (the police) a long time ago and they said they would consider it but a new investigating officer who took over actually said: 'I'm not really interested in some bloke's opinion'. That was his remark on it. And we kept saying: 'This isn't some bloke's opinion – this is a very, very detailed piece of information.'"
Family's ongoing fight
Mrs O'Sullivan appealed to the public to come forward with any information relating to her son's disappearance. She said: "We're desperately trying to find our son and we want to appeal to the public and appeal to anybody who might have information relating to that evening. I want to make the public aware we are still in this position. It has been 29 months and it's really now down to us – that's the way we see it.
"For us it's not in the police's best interests to find Jack now anywhere other than the water, which is a really sad state of affairs, but that's how we see it. I have to continually listen to the police say that they have at all times followed the evidence and that they have been open-minded but that's not been our reality at all."
Mrs O'Sullivan said the College of Policing had become involved at the family's request. "We don't understand why some very obvious things wouldn't have been explored," she said. "We have to keep pushing forward and we have to keep the pressure on because there is going to be a time where this is closed down unfortunately. For me it will never be closed down until I know where Jack is.
"The police tried to close it down very early on in Jack's disappearance. It was quite shocking that they had gone to the coroner in our area after four months to consider an inquest to be opened and we weren't aware of that. That is the direction that they are probably going to pursue but we're not going to accept anything like that."
A statement from Avon and Somerset Police issued to This Morning read: "We wholeheartedly recognise the devastating impact Jack's disappearance continues to have on his loved ones. We have regularly checked all evidence, information, and all lines of inquiry have been equally pursued. Information from third parties has been fed into our inquiries. We continue to engage with the College of Policing around the review."
