Catherine O’Sullivan said she craves closure after a “hell from year” and is just desperate to find out what happened to her son Jack, who went missing in March
The mum of missing student Jack O’Sullivan said they desperately hope to find answers to what happened to him in 2025.
Catherine O’Sullivan said she craves closure after a “hell from year” and is just desperate to find out what happened to her son. Jack, 23, vanished without trace after being last seen at 3.15am on Saturday March 2, 2024 in Bristol.
His desperate mum Catherine has said they are no closer to finding him or finding out what happened, despite multiple searches and a high profile campaign, which has failed to produce a single lead. The 52-year-old said she will continue spending ‘all day every day’ hunting for Jack in the new year.
Catherine said the past year has taken its toll on the family – but said they have no option but to keep going. She said: “You have points you think can we physically continue but the reality is we are going to keep doing the best we can with as much energy as we can. We are not going to give up finding out what happened to Jack until we know.
“I hear a lot of references to Jack in the past tense. I am not prepared to do that. While we have no idea where he is we have got to keep looking. At least to get some answers. Until then it all just remains a mystery.
“You can almost persuade yourself to live in a world of denial and have to face the reality. But the truth is we just don’t know. We have no idea what happened and everyone who has tried to help – to all sorts of degrees – are as baffled as we are.
“The police don’t tell us much at all – all other experts find it really strange. On that basis you can not rule anything out out. We can not move on and just have to keep trying to get to the truth. I take it hour by hour a lot of the time. Over the holidays we haven’t had the same communication we usually do as everyone has been doing their own thing.
“We’ll be in the same position at the beginning of the year – just listening to people, taking advice and keep going. There are no leads and it is as we were on March 2. Such little information, nothing found, no possessions discovered. We’ve had numerous reported sightings – but nothing has led to anything.”
She added: “It has no doubt been the worst nine months of our life. It does not get any better or easier and I think everything is heightened at Christmas for everybody.”
Catherine won a battle with the company EE in November to access data about her son’s missing phone. It prompted a new search programme involving metal detectorists looking for his phone and other clues and these will be continued in the New Year when they can.
Catherine, of Flax Bourton, Somerset, added: “To date every search has not provided anything at all, no items or anything. We got EE phone data in the end but for more accuracy we needed radio frequency that was done at the time – rather than now. It shouldn’t differ greatly – but would be much more accurate. Police won’t release to us – it has not made us blind but has hindered it a bit
“We don’t understand rationale from police for not sharing – it is not anyone’s data – it is just a survey. It is a challenge to get these searches organised – they are specialist and volunteers and it is dependant on people’s time and being tied together.”
The Facebook Group Find Jack has been providing a source of comfort with huge volumes of support from the local community and well-wishers from further afield. She added: “The public has been amazing trying to pursue things – but we are still as much in the dark as we were on the first night.
“We don’t have any evidence to suggest anything. But all the experts we’ve spoken to said if Jack was in the water we should have discovered him a long time ago. The fact we haven’t suggests he hasn’t gone into the water. My gut also tells me that. But I am his mum and perhaps I just want that to be the case.
“People are generally supportive with thoughts and ideas. It does give you that added support that people really care and on the whole the public have been unbelievable. There has been an alternative Facebook group set up called Finding Jack – discussions and theories, which is pretty harsh and grim. People feel the need to express opinions. I know I don’t need to look at that but sadly I do.
“People contact me and ask for justification and challenging us on decisions. People forget I’m Jack’s mum. We have had ransom demands and trolls but you quickly realise they have no substance. But it is hard to ignore people saying ‘I’ve got your son, I know where he is. This is never the world I imagined we’d be living in but everyday I am indebted to people for the support they give us.”
The last confirmed sighting of Jack was at 3.13am on Sunday, March 2 as he walked onto a grass area at the junction of Brunel Lock Way and Brunel Way. His family previously said they had ”lost all faith” in Avon and Somerset Police’s investigation and are continuing to search everyday themselves.
A spokesperson said more than 100 hours of CCTV have been reviewed, 200 hours of searches on the river and the surrounding banks, mounted police searches from Bristol city centre to Flax Bourton, 40 land searches, and 16 drone deployments. A complaint to the IOPC remains ongoing.
Catherine asked anyone with information to email [email protected] or contact the Missing People charity who will pass information onto the police.