Found Deceased UK - Anthony Knott, 33, last seen at a pub in Lewes, Sussex, 20 Dec 2019 #2

[Angleterre]

Welcome to websleuths Walker
Good to hear from you

 

[Angleterre]

The industrial estate opposite Tesco in Guiser's picture is being knocked down. A lot of it has gone and its cordoned off. People squat in a coupl of the buildings just past the fire station to the Pells park. There was also a fire on the industrial estate on the 27th December.

The picture showing tesco.. there is a lit footpath that follows the river from the town to the footbridge (that connects to the Pells). Can confirm that this was not under water as i walked through town and along the path at 8.20pm on 20th December.

Welcome to websleuths and thank you for this information it puts a different perspective on it again

 

[Angleterre]

REALLY??Its all so bizarre and confusing isn’t it?


QUOTE="Walker78, post: 15690891, member: 258571"]Hi Elainera, thanks for the welcome!

I cannot rule out entirely that at some point later in the evening AK ended up at that spot but I find it very unlikely that he would have any need to have gone in that direction. The last evidence we have of his movements is the cctv of him walking south down Market Street at 19.41. This is in the opposite direction of North Street and the other locations of the photos guiser posted. Instead, it is likely he would have ended up at the war memorial on the High Street (I'll expand on why I think this likely later) and then, alas, we don't know where he went.



Really? It’s all so bizarre and confusing isn’t it[/QUOTE]

 

[Angleterre]

I read a post on Facebook from a pub landlord in Lewes who said visitors were often asking him where they could buy cigarettes, and when he gave them directions he’d watch and they nearly always went the wrong way.

I think he also said that Lewes was easy to get lost in, but I’ll need to find the post...it was some time back.

People, myself included, are assuming AK went to buy cigarettes, but being a smoker I’d have thought he’d have brought enough with him for his night out. Or simply stopped en route between pubs earlier in the day & bought a packet from a shop. Smokers always know when they’re running low, so that’s the first thing they’d do.

Thinking it through, and seeing how AK seemed gregarious, outgoing & chatty, if he wanted to buy cigarettes why didn’t he ask the Lamb’s bar staff where he could buy some? Or ask one of his colleagues (some who lived in or near Lewes?) It doesn’t add up that he’d scroll through his phone looking for supermarkets/garages...

In the footage of him walking behind the man & woman carrying what looked to be take-away food; why didn’t he ask them the nearest place to buy cigarettes?

I know some people think he was sober, but he does stumble momentarily as he’s walking behind the couple, and as he hadn’t had a drink in the Lamb, my guess is he felt he’d had enough. After all, he was on a pub crawl, so he had been drinking from around midday-ish. He clearly wasn’t paralytic, but he must have been over the DD limit, which means his reactions were compromised, so if he did mistakenly end up by the river - despite his training as a firefighter - his senses wouldn’t have been as astute as normal. Besides that, accidents can happen to anyone, whoever they are. People can slip/stumble, especially if they’re tipsy/tired...

Back to him checking his data, my guess is he wasn’t looking for directions to a supermarket. And everyone is assuming his battery died, but no-one really knows if he turned his phone off. And if he did switch it off: why?

I also wonder why his workmates haven’t given more details: they’ve been strangely quiet. I wonder if there was a small fallout when AK didn’t want a drink in the Lamb, and as they’d all been drinking one of them said something untoward to AK which upset him and he decided to walk off?

If he did simply go looking for cigarettes why didn’t he tell one of the group?

I believe it is possible he stumbled upon the river without barely noticing it in the dark. If it was almost impossible for him to have fallen in the river the Surrey & Sussex Rescue Team wouldn’t have sent divers down to search it...

The river was running at a dangerously fast current that night - so if he did, tragically, fall in he must have been swept along...maybe that’s why the police & search teams have stopped their searching & are just waiting until he’s found? It’s awful to say, and it’s heartbreaking, but where else could he be?

The only other possibility is it’s connected in some way to him appearing anxious (according to his best friend who saw footage that hasn’t been made public), and he searching through his phone for something before it dying/being switched off. Maybe he did think “I’m going home now - I’ve had enough” if there’d been a few cross words in the Lamb...but that seems quite extreme, so it’s unlikely.

I definitely don’t think he was looking for a hook-up, otherwise he’d have kept his phone on until he’d met up with them - especially as he appeared to be lost by going in the wrong direction.

Sadly, I can only think he got lost and slipped into the river. It must be torturous for his family, but they need to find him - whatever has happened. Not knowing where he is must be unimaginably unbearable.

Excellent post and summary thank you

 

[SheCarrot]

On the outside of the pub CCTV we see AK take a cigarette out of a packet. I can’t zoom in on the phone but there appears to be only a couple left.

Again I can’t tell on the phone but he appears to light someone’s cigarette prior to that.

If so, perhaps his friends could have lent him enough cigarettes to save him from leaving. As a non-smoker I am unaware of the etiquette but with him being prepared to light other peoples cigarettes, perhaps he was already better prepared & had another pack or emergency tobacco with Rizla’s.

BBM

An ex-smoker writes: the likelihood of having a roll-up kit as an emergency back-up is zero . Those who use conventional tipped seldom cross over , even when desperate.
I suspect since AK falls into the casual/social smoker-group , his supply or imperative to have a supply is probably on an 'as and when' basis , rather than 'never without' .

At a guess , he wouldn't have known beforehand that there wasn't ample choice of shops to go to(probably) -- moreover , we get used to having lots of little shops that are open until 10/11 in the evening (the co-ops/premier/budgens/londis/multiple Tesco Metro etc) , plus 24hour petrol stations . I figure it wouldn't have occurred to him to research.
I think venturing out might have been driven by making sure he had some for the following morning rather than just the need for some for the rest of the evening .

Customer service/ciggie counters don't usually stay open in tandem with shop hours , do they (our big Tesco's sometimes closes at 8 , Tesco say more generally it's 10 - don't know about Waitrose - perhaps Anthony thought he needed to get a wriggle on for that reason) ?

 

[rosesfromangels]

BBM

An ex-smoker writes: the likelihood of having a roll-up kit as an emergency back-up is zero . Those who use conventional tipped seldom cross over , even when desperate.
I suspect since AK falls into the casual/social smoker-group , his supply or imperative to have a supply is probably on an 'as and when' basis , rather than 'never without' .

At a guess , he wouldn't have known beforehand that there wasn't ample choice of shops to go to(probably) -- moreover , we get used to having lots of little shops that are open until 10/11 in the evening (the co-ops/premier/budgens/londis/multiple Tesco Metro etc) , plus 24hour petrol stations . I figure it wouldn't have occurred to him to research.
I think venturing out might have been driven by making sure he had some for the following morning rather than just the need for some for the rest of the evening .

Customer service/ciggie counters don't usually stay open in tandem with shop hours , do they (our big Tesco's sometimes closes at 8 , Tesco say more generally it's 10 - don't know about Waitrose - perhaps Anthony thought he needed to get a wriggle on for that reason) ?

Drinking can really stimulate the desire for a smoke. I can understand him going to extra effort to find them in that scenario.

amateur opinion and speculation

 

[Ruthbullock]

Phone theories- I have no idea whether he switches off or ran out of battery- what I don’t think he was doing was using it- iPhones can automatically update apps using data. We all use iPhones in our house and what I would say is we all have different models, and we all have to plug in after being at work all day- so the 18 hour battery life whilst plausible is a bit of a stretch. He hadn’t switched it on and off through the day to save battery as he received texts and calls on it, he had been out since at a guess 11.30 to arrive at the first location for 12.30 and it possibly wasn’t fully charged when he left home. What we do know is he was using data at 7.19 when seen on CCTV and it wasn’t in his hands. Did he accidentally leave it at the previous pub and someone took it? Or did it just power down at 7.21? Or was he ignoring someone sending him texts via another iPhone (which is recorded as data) and eventually took his phone out and switched it off?

 

[Sarahlou]

I reckon he switched his phone off so that he couldn't be contacted. To me it seems too much of a coincidence that his phone went off at the same time as he went missing.

 

[motherofdaughters]

I think he left the Lamb at 1916.

The closing time to buy a Euromillions ticket is 1930.

I’ve seen plenty of betting shop customers nip out for a ticket just before close of sales.

I just have a hunch that his departure wasn’t for cigarette reasons.

His phone running out of battery AND running out of cigarettes at the same time would be more mathematically unlikely.

If he was able to switch his phone back on, we are told he never did...therefore the battery must have gone or he wanted it off for reason(s) other than cigarettes. As I’ve said previously, if fully charged prior to leaving for the day, modern iPhone’s should perform all the tasks you need for 18 hours unless streaming video for longer than 180 mins.

I don’t necessarily buy the phone charge thing.
I had to change my old IPhone 6s as the battery was awful. It would last less than half a day and that was with little use.
I think they get to a certain age and they have an inbuilt self destruct:

not that it’s entirely relevant, I suppose we just know his phone switched off. if LE thought it was important ‘we’ knew, amd they knew, they’d inform us.

 

[motherofdaughters]

Snipped and BBM

I also wonder why his workmates haven’t given more details: they’ve been strangely quiet. I wonder if there was a small fallout when AK didn’t want a drink in the Lamb, and, as they’d all been drinking one of them said something untoward to AK which upset him and he decided to walk off?

If he did simply go looking for cigarettes why didn’t he tell one of the group?


Not sure if I’ve quoted that right etc but as I suggested earlier, just because it hasn’t been released into MSM why he left, it doesn’t mean they don’t know.
I’d suggest LE know why he left, or at least what he told the group. just like we don’t know that he told the group where he was going, we also don’t know that he didn’t.
His workmates will have been interviewed (or whatever it’s called) by police and likely want to stay well out of the media or indeed have been advised to

 

[motherofdaughters]

I appear to have added my reply to the body of the quote above. Sorry.

 

[Lofticus]

It was dark and lots of people out.... was the last working day before Christmas so lots of people finished work and went to the pub. River was high and fast but it wasn't raining


ts

Thank you Lofticus, for sharing your observations, and Welcome to WS!

So you were actually in the area that very night - you might have unknowingly walked by Anthony!

Can you recall the weather? Was it cloudy, raining?

Thank you @Walker78 for the detailed explanation. It is all very odd and puzzling isn't it? Where could he have gone? Is there anywhere where he might have sat down, a park? Might he have needed a public toilet? Is there one?

It's so nice to have so much local input here!

 

[motherofdaughters]

I must admit, I did think he looked “on edge” outside the Lansdowne. He kept pacing up and down. It’s also strange why the police officer pointed out that he was seen rubbing his hands together inside the Lamb. Why would the police officer mention that?

He also rubbed his hands together in the first footage of him walking: that’s often a sign of anxiety, though some people do it when excited - but not so much that they do it enough for it to be noted, as the police noted it.

I read that he loved his job, so I don’t think he had worries there. He’d only been a firefighter for a year and no-one’s said if he ever had to deal with dead bodies/fires/accidents, and the brigade put recruits through stringent tests to make sure they’re physically and mentally capable of dealing with trauma. I know some emergency service officers can get PTSD, but that tends to be after a fairly long service - unless AK was more sensitive than anyone realised and it hadn’t been picked up.

BBM

Again, I think if it was a mannerism he had, they’d just release it so he was more identifiable.
He’s a pretty big standard looking bloke with nothing striking to define him from others.
Describing his walk and hand rubbing may make someone remember seeing him.

much like of he was wearing something distinctive or had obvious tattoos etc

 

[EyeSpyU]

BBM

An ex-smoker writes: the likelihood of having a roll-up kit as an emergency back-up is zero . Those who use conventional tipped seldom cross over , even when desperate.
I suspect since AK falls into the casual/social smoker-group , his supply or imperative to have a supply is probably on an 'as and when' basis , rather than 'never without' .

At a guess , he wouldn't have known beforehand that there wasn't ample choice of shops to go to(probably) -- moreover , we get used to having lots of little shops that are open until 10/11 in the evening (the co-ops/premier/budgens/londis/multiple Tesco Metro etc) , plus 24hour petrol stations . I figure it wouldn't have occurred to him to research.
I think venturing out might have been driven by making sure he had some for the following morning rather than just the need for some for the rest of the evening .

Customer service/ciggie counters don't usually stay open in tandem with shop hours , do they (our big Tesco's sometimes closes at 8 , Tesco say more generally it's 10 - don't know about Waitrose - perhaps Anthony thought he needed to get a wriggle on for that reason) ?

He wouldn’t have had spare tobacco as a back-up, but he’d have possibly had an extra packet - it depends how prepared he was.

I haven’t seen anything that’s says he was just a social smoker? He certainly doesn’t look like one to me by the fact he went out twice or more within half an hour to have a cigarette. That’s not a social smoker: that’s a proper 20 a day or more smoker. You can also tell by how he inhales quite deeply that he’s no casual smoker. And if he was only a social smoker he wouldn’t have cared about supplies for the next day...and would have bought them near home... I can’t see him leaving his friends when it’s cold, dark etc, and he’s not sure where he is to locate cigarettes for the next day...that would be completely pointless.

All smokers know that they can buy cigarettes 24/7 from any petrol station, and he would know that, obviously.

 

[Lofticus]

Going south(up) market street he was about 20 seconds from the high street and war memorial. Barclays, betting shop and others would have cctv. Can't see where he went

REALLY??Its all so bizarre and confusing isn’t it?


QUOTE="Walker78, post: 15690891, member: 258571"]Hi Elainera, thanks for the welcome!

I cannot rule out entirely that at some point later in the evening AK ended up at that spot but I find it very unlikely that he would have any need to have gone in that direction. The last evidence we have of his movements is the cctv of him walking south down Market Street at 19.41. This is in the opposite direction of North Street and the other locations of the photos guiser posted. Instead, it is likely he would have ended up at the war memorial on the High Street (I'll expand on why I think this likely later) and then, alas, we don't know where he went.



Really? It’s all so bizarre and confusing isn’t it

[/QUOTE]

 

[EyeSpyU]

Drinking can really stimulate the desire for a smoke. I can understand him going to extra effort to find them in that scenario.

amateur opinion and speculation

Exactly.

All the more reason he would have had an extra packet on him or bought some earlier in the day.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Exactly.

All the more reason he would have had an extra packet on him or bought some earlier in the day.

Well, part of the drinking scene is sharing your smokes with your mates. He likely ran out.

 

[EyeSpyU]

I don’t necessarily buy the phone charge thing.
I had to change my old IPhone 6s as the battery was awful. It would last less than half a day and that was with little use.
I think they get to a certain age and they have an inbuilt self destruct:

not that it’s entirely relevant, I suppose we just know his phone switched off. if LE thought it was important ‘we’ knew, amd they knew, they’d inform us.

It is important, though.

If he turned his phone off, that sheds a whole new light on his disappearance rather than if his battery died.

No-one has said how old his phone was, but I believe he worked as an electrician before joining the FB, so you safely say he was reliant on his phone & probably updated them every two years once his contract was up. He must have needed it both as an electrician when he was out on jobs, and as a firefighter too - unless they provide firefighters with work phones, in which case he’d have had two. Whatever, I don’t think he or anyone would keep a phone that only had a battery life of about 7 hours...and it drained after making just one text, receiving a short call, and looking at data for 3 minutes. For all anyone knows it could have been a new phone. And I don’t think many people going 50 miles for a work do would leave home with a rundown battery...everyone relies so much on their phones now, so I suspect he’d have made sure his battery was full.

But if his battery did die and he was, say, lost amongst the streets, all he had to do was go into the pub and ask the bar staff if anyone had a charger to put some charge on their phone. You can almost guarantee they have a charger behind the bar.

 

[EyeSpyU]

Well, part of the drinking scene is sharing your smokes with your mates. He likely ran out.

It used to be that way, but now cigarettes are so expensive people tend not to share. Besides, fewer people smoke nowadays...so he was probably in the minority of his group.

The friend he went outside with to smoke, it how’s them both smoking their own cigarettes.

 

[SOMETHINGWILLDO]

Have I picked this up correctly? The phone is switched off around 7pm (battery doesn’t die) and then again around 1am?

if that’s the case, it sounds like he has had an argument with someone and doesn’t want them contacting him. Maybe Anthony had no notion of making his way back home after that phone call? If that’s the case, could he have headed in a completely different direction at the end of the night?

Fiancee of missing firefighter begs him to come home as she recalls final words