Found Deceased UK - Thomas Jones, 18, Worcester, 19 Sep 2018

[MelmothTheLost]

I went to a university just 7 miles from home. The first year I lived at my parents home, but it became difficult because I didn't have the freedom and independence that my new university friends had, so the second and third years I rented a room in a house with my friends. Whilst living at home my Mum would stay up worrying if I went on a night out with friends. I guess some Mum's worry more than others. This put pressure on our relationship and my want for independence so that's why I moved out despite the university being so close to home. Maybe if his Mum was the worrying, smothering kind, he decided he wanted that independence from the start, despite not living far away. Maybe that university had the perfect course for him so he didn't want to go to one miles away. He might have felt it was the best of both worlds.

Traditionally (and I'm going back to before 1992) students went away to university or stayed at home and went to their local polytechnic. Almost all of the pre-1992 universities used to virtually guarantee first year students a place in a hall of residence or university flat, and that vast majority moved out for more independence in their 2nd year.

The polytechnics provided a very useful stepping stone to for less confident, especially working class, students from families with no prior experience of tertiary education to live at home while studying for a more vocational or practical degree.

These lines have completely blurred in recent decades, but I'm puzzled about Tom's situation. If he thought his mum would be suffocating it would make sense to move to a more distant place to study. It's possible, of course, that Worcester had the perfect course for him, as you put it, but academically it's pretty bog standard in that I'm not aware of it having an exceptional reputation for any particular subjects. It's the local option rather than the outstanding one.

 

[Ironside]

This explains why the police stated they don't want any help with searching, they don't want any forensic evidence to be compromised.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Second murder arrest over missing student

 

[Legally Bland]

It seems he was staying in halls.

AN 18-year-old student who vanished on a freshers night out called a new pal when he was just two minutes from home before disappearing, a friend has claimed.

Tom Jones was last seen five days ago in Worcester city centre as he made his way back to student accommodation at around 3am.

Student who vanished 'called pal minutes from home' before disappearing

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I must admit I find it very odd he called his parents at 3am, I wonder if there's a back story to that.

Remembering my own halls (Lupton in Headingley, some of you will know it) it took a few minutes to get across from one side to the other. Would be interesting to know the layout of Tom's halls. Could he have stopped by another flat there? Could the 20 year olds also be students?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Facebook posts seem to suggest Tom was seen at 3:30 crossing the footbridge (Sabrina bridge) so I guess he lives on the Severn/Riverside campus. The other, St Johns, is on the same side of the river but would be a good 10 minute walk away.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

A Facebook group has been set up to help find Tom:

FIND JONAH!

 

[MelmothTheLost]

This explains why the police stated they don't want any help with searching, they don't want any forensic evidence to be compromised.

Maybe it's also that they don't want a civilian volunteer to find the body.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Another or an updated article in the Mail. There is a map of Worcester showing places and events of the early hours of the morning Tom disappeared.

Second man arrested after University of Worcester fresher student went missing | Daily Mail Online

There's still no information about any connection between Tom and the men suspected of killing him.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Remembering my own halls (Lupton in Headingley, some of you will know it)

I do indeed. I was at Oxley myself.

As I recall, Jacqueline Hill, Peter Sutcliffe's last victim, lived at Lupton Flats.

it took a few minutes to get across from one side to the other. Would be interesting to know the layout of Tom's halls. Could he have stopped by another flat there? Could the 20 year olds also be students?

Good thought. No doubt with the explosion in student numbers over the past 20 years student halls and flats are presumably much bigger than they used to be. Boddington Hall was the largest development at Leeds University when I was there and accommodated over 600 people. It certainly took a good few minutes to walk across it.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I do indeed. I was at Oxley myself.

As I recall, Jacqueline Hill, Peter Sutcliffe's last victim, lived at Lupton Flats.

She did, and was found under a tree just near the halls. Wasn't she on your English course, we've discussed her before, I'm sure.

Interesting that in Tom's case the police have very quickly arrested on suspicion of murder. I wonder what evidence they have, CCTV at a guess. It's certainly playing out differently to our typical "drunk student near a river" scenario.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

She did, and was found under a tree just near the halls. Wasn't she on your English course, we've discussed her before, I'm sure.

Yes, we have. She was actually found on a triangle of wasteland behind the Arndale Centre. It's now a small carpark.

Google Maps

We both studied English at the same time but where on different "schemes". Jackie was on a linguistics stream. I was a mediaevalist.

Interesting that in Tom's case the police have very quickly arrested on suspicion of murder. I wonder what evidence they have, CCTV at a guess. It's certainly playing out differently to our typical "drunk student near a river" scenario.

There might have been an altercation at the nightclub and the men then seen going in the same direction as Tom. Or maybe somebody else waking in the same direction saw something.

Those two men could be other students or local men unconnected with the university. There's still a town and gown issue in some cities with local people hostile to and envious of students.

 

[Scorpio1]

The friends the he was out with split up at some point and they got back to the university the via the taxi service the university supplys, it's strange that he didn't go with them, i wonder what he did afterwards,

 

[MelmothTheLost]

The friends the he was out with split up at some point and they got back to the university the via the taxi service the university supplys, it's strange that he didn't go with them, i wonder what he did afterwards,

The university supplies a taxi service?

From the city centre to that area of campus is barely a mile. I thought nothing about walking over 3 miles from Leeds University campus out to Far Headingley after a night out.

Maybe he fancied the walk?

 

[Scorpio1]

The university supplies a taxi service?

From the city centre to that area of campus is barely a mile. I thought nothing about walking over 3 miles from Leeds University campus out to Far Headingley after a night out.

Maybe he fancied the walk?

Maybe he got something to eat then walked, i suspect that we will have some kind of police press conference tomorrow as they will ether charge the two people or let them go pending enquiry ,

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I think there has to be more to it; it's the 3am phone call to mum that's confusing me. You'd think a text would have done, and even then, why would his parents need to know? I suspect he had been talking to them already that day/night, maybe he hadn't settled in well, maybe there was an incident while he was out, maybe something happened which warranted his mum asking that he called her at whatever ungodly hour to say he was safe. I rang home once a week from the halls phone box, they had zero idea what I was up to in the 7 days between (thankfully...)

HIs poor family must be beside themselves, gotta be your worst nightmare as a parent. He's literally just left home and this happened already.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I think there has to be more to it; it's the 3am phone call to mum that's confusing me.

Agreed.

You'd think a text would have done, and even then, why would his parents need to know? I suspect he had been talking to them already that day/night, maybe he hadn't settled in well, maybe there was an incident while he was out, maybe something happened which warranted his mum asking that he called her at whatever ungodly hour to say he was safe. I rang home once a week from the halls phone box, they had zero idea what I was up to in the 7 days between (thankfully...)

Agreed again. I get the impression that these days there's quite a high drop out rate at lower tier universities, simply because they attract lower calibre students who are less suited academically to serious study. Maybe he was already having doubts or was homesick. But if the latter was the case he could simply have gone back home to live.

Interesting that his course was to qualify as a primary school teacher. Quite unusual for a man, even these days, I think.

HIs poor family must be beside themselves, gotta be your worst nightmare as a parent. He's literally just left home and this happened already.

Sadly, yes. It must have seemed such a safe option, just 10 miles from home in a small city that would have already been familiar to him. It's not as though he'd gone to Manchester or London.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Uh-oh, the Find Jonah group already has over 16k members. Hope it doesn't go the same way as Corrie's Army, as we have seen how hindering that can become.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Just looking at the Mail's map of Tom's journey home:

The timings suggest that he wasn't walking purposefully or fast.

Between 3am and 3.30am he walks around a third of a mile from McDonalds to the racecourse, from where he sent a snapchat. Then between 3.30 and 3.50 he walks only a couple of hundred yards from the racecourse to the Sabrina Bridge. Why was he making such slow progress? An earlier report said quite clearly that he was not drunk, so was he being followed and hassled by the men who've been arrested?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Oh OK, so he is at St Johns, slightly further away. The offices for both the local newspaper and BBC TV are on that road, I would hope both/either have CCTV.

Also, according to the map he left Velvet nightclub at 3am, makes it even more strange that he called his mum at that point to say he was home already (if the timings are accurate, of course)

I wonder if the police or family have managed to track his phone.