UK UK - Jack O'Sullivan, 22, left friends after night out, last seen Brunel Lock Road/Brunel Way, Bristol at 3.15am, 2 Mar 2024

[SteveH]

Just to clarify so we're all on the same page. Apple have not said it was not registered. Apple haven't commented beyond saying it's difficult with privacy laws to reveal this kind of information. It was the police who suggested it "wasn't registered correctly" whatever that means (note: factually, they're wrong here. It's either registered, or not registered) and since Jack showed his mum that he could find it in the house using Find My to make the airtag give off an audible noise to help find it, that means it was registered. To who? That's the question.

There was a dailymail article about this situation: Catherine (Jack's mother) said that the police's latest statement two weeks ago was that the AirTag had been 'registered to Jack's ex-girlfriend's account' which is why they couldn't locate it.

'But I (Jack's mother) actually contacted her this weekend just to verify that and she said, 'No that's not true, I didn't register it',' Catherine revealed. 'So we just can't get a straight answer.' Link to article here.

Now, assuming the ex-girlfriend is telling the truth and I've got no reason to doubt her, the airtag will be likely registered to Jack's Apple account which means the posts above are right, without the phone, it's useless. And if you had the phone, the airtag may not be far away anyway.

So I'll move onto another part of the story (in the same article) that I find either strange or a total coincidence depending on how you interpret it. Jack set off by bus at 8.20pm and at 10.45pm, he texted his mother that they had moved to a house party in Hotwells. 'All good, keys are safe,' he wrote (source is the article linked above).

Two things stand out. 1) He wasn't originally at the house party, "they" whoever "they" are, had "moved to a house party". And 2) The text to his mother about the keys being safe. To me, it's either total coincidence that he should mention his keys being safe, only for them along with Jack and all belongings on his person to go missing the very next night.

I suppose the point I'm getting to, is that this was a multi layered night with multiple decisions made rather than a simple case where the missing person had no contact with people. Jack was with family, then on the bus (presumably with other members of the public), then with a friend(s) and then at a party with others, then 400 cars in the area. On the surface, it should have been difficult for Jack to go missing in the first place (my objective opinion of course).

Another Mail Article explains a bit more about Jack's movements etc before going to the party:

"Jack was unsure about going to the party because he barely knew anyone there, but his mother had encouraged him to go and meet new people as his friends from home had moved away.

He took the bus from his house in Flax Bourton to Bristol city centre to have drinks with three of his university friends at a Wetherspoons, before all four, two boys and two girls, ventured to a house party hosted by a girl on his law conversion course.

The University of Exeter graduate, who had moved back to Bristol for the law course, stuck with his group at the party on Hotwell Road, but at one point tumbled down the stairs and hit his head.

When a random partygoer joked about him having too much to drink, Jack shoved him in a brief clash, but this did not go further."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13864853/Jack-OSullivan-house-party-disappeared-fight-fell-stairs-missing.html

And this article from Bristol Live explains the difficulties of finding Jack's body if he did go into the river:

"In the first days and weeks of the search for Jack, that involved search teams in boats, divers, bringing in oceanographers to look at tides and river flows. This is not an easy task. Those outside Bristol trying to piece together events and theories from anywhere around the world maybe aren’t aware that the Severn Estuary and the Avon in Bristol have the second highest tidal range in the world.

Twice a day the River Avon and the New Cut fill with sea water that rushes up the Avon Gorge and under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and twice a day that pours out again in a fast-moving flow that includes the River Avon. It’s held back by massive lock gates that keep the Cumberland Basin and the Floating Harbour at a constant level, but these are murky depths too that are regularly emptied and churned with lock gates opening and pumps activating. People fall in the river and often aren’t found for weeks and months, and sometimes aren’t found at all...

Bristol’s rivers, harbours and basins regularly claim people’s lives. They are not always, but often, young men, late at night, who have been out for the evening, and are struggling to get home. A coincidental spate of such tragedies around six years ago led to two things - an unfounded conspiracy theories of a ‘pusher’ in Bristol, and a review of safety around the Floating Harbour. Thanks to better fencing, education campaigns, more cameras and patrols, tragedies are less regular than they were."

The heartbreaking mystery of missing Jack O'Sullivan

Frustration and agony for the family whose son and brother disappeared in Bristol four and a half months ago

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Because a lot of pubs, clubs and other venues in Bristol are right by the water, unlike say in Central London - and that wasn't always the case here either when the docks were an off limits working area with boatyards, warehouses and sheds, railway tracks and goods yards, cranes etc - it isn't perhaps too surprising that people do end up drowning after a night of heavy drinking/drug taking etc,. Sad but not really mysterious.

 

[twomoresmores]

Just to clarify so we're all on the same page. Apple have not said it was not registered. Apple haven't commented beyond saying it's difficult with privacy laws to reveal this kind of information. It was the police who suggested it "wasn't registered correctly" whatever that means (note: factually, they're wrong here. It's either registered, or not registered) and since Jack showed his mum that he could find it in the house using Find My to make the airtag give off an audible noise to help find it, that means it was registered. To who? That's the question.

There was a dailymail article about this situation: Catherine (Jack's mother) said that the police's latest statement two weeks ago was that the AirTag had been 'registered to Jack's ex-girlfriend's account' which is why they couldn't locate it.

'But I (Jack's mother) actually contacted her this weekend just to verify that and she said, 'No that's not true, I didn't register it',' Catherine revealed. 'So we just can't get a straight answer.' Link to article here.

Now, assuming the ex-girlfriend is telling the truth and I've got no reason to doubt her, the airtag will be likely registered to Jack's Apple account which means the posts above are right, without the phone, it's useless. And if you had the phone, the airtag may not be far away anyway.

So I'll move onto another part of the story (in the same article) that I find either strange or a total coincidence depending on how you interpret it. Jack set off by bus at 8.20pm and at 10.45pm, he texted his mother that they had moved to a house party in Hotwells. 'All good, keys are safe,' he wrote (source is the article linked above).

Two things stand out. 1) He wasn't originally at the house party, "they" whoever "they" are, had "moved to a house party". And 2) The text to his mother about the keys being safe. To me, it's either total coincidence that he should mention his keys being safe, only for them along with Jack and all belongings on his person to go missing the very next night.

I suppose the point I'm getting to, is that this was a multi layered night with multiple decisions made rather than a simple case where the missing person had no contact with people. Jack was with family, then on the bus (presumably with other members of the public), then with a friend(s) and then at a party with others, then 400 cars in the area. On the surface, it should have been difficult for Jack to go missing in the first place (my objective opinion of course).

I presume his house key was with the bunch of keys? I wonder if the key comment was in reference to perhaps meaning 'I still have my house key, I'll be able to get in'. I think it's an odd comment, unnecessary to make. More necessary would be that he had indeed lost the keys..... Not that he hasn't lost them.
I'm baffled that maybe people at the party haven't been individually interviewed to help provide a clearer picture of the hours and events leading up to the disappearance.
JMO as always.

 

[infohuntah]

Another Mail Article explains a bit more about Jack's movements etc before going to the party:

"Jack was unsure about going to the party because he barely knew anyone there, but his mother had encouraged him to go and meet new people as his friends from home had moved away.

He took the bus from his house in Flax Bourton to Bristol city centre to have drinks with three of his university friends at a Wetherspoons, before all four, two boys and two girls, ventured to a house party hosted by a girl on his law conversion course.

The University of Exeter graduate, who had moved back to Bristol for the law course, stuck with his group at the party on Hotwell Road, but at one point tumbled down the stairs and hit his head.

When a random partygoer joked about him having too much to drink, Jack shoved him in a brief clash, but this did not go further."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13864853/Jack-OSullivan-house-party-disappeared-fight-fell-stairs-missing.html

And this article from Bristol Live explains the difficulties of finding Jack's body if he did go into the river:

"In the first days and weeks of the search for Jack, that involved search teams in boats, divers, bringing in oceanographers to look at tides and river flows. This is not an easy task. Those outside Bristol trying to piece together events and theories from anywhere around the world maybe aren’t aware that the Severn Estuary and the Avon in Bristol have the second highest tidal range in the world.

Twice a day the River Avon and the New Cut fill with sea water that rushes up the Avon Gorge and under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and twice a day that pours out again in a fast-moving flow that includes the River Avon. It’s held back by massive lock gates that keep the Cumberland Basin and the Floating Harbour at a constant level, but these are murky depths too that are regularly emptied and churned with lock gates opening and pumps activating. People fall in the river and often aren’t found for weeks and months, and sometimes aren’t found at all...

Bristol’s rivers, harbours and basins regularly claim people’s lives. They are not always, but often, young men, late at night, who have been out for the evening, and are struggling to get home. A coincidental spate of such tragedies around six years ago led to two things - an unfounded conspiracy theories of a ‘pusher’ in Bristol, and a review of safety around the Floating Harbour. Thanks to better fencing, education campaigns, more cameras and patrols, tragedies are less regular than they were."

The heartbreaking mystery of missing Jack O'Sullivan

Frustration and agony for the family whose son and brother disappeared in Bristol four and a half months ago

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Because a lot of pubs, clubs and other venues in Bristol are right by the water, unlike say in Central London - and that wasn't always the case here either when the docks were an off limits working area with boatyards, warehouses and sheds, railway tracks and goods yards, cranes etc - it isn't perhaps too surprising that people do end up drowning after a night of heavy drinking/drug taking etc,. Sad but not really mysterious.

Interesting, thanks for the share. I'd either missed that article or forgotten about it (I think I'd forgotten the wetherspoons pub part which has got my attention). I don't want to suggest it's too strange that he went out with friends and ended up at a house party, but at the same time, I can't help thinking it's somewhat suspicious that he was going for a drink with friends (which seemed to be the main plan) and somehow ends up at the house party (with friends, allegedly) and subsequently goes missing.

These lines from the article stand out as being of note: "The University of Exeter graduate, who had moved back to Bristol for the law course, stuck with his group at the party on Hotwell Road, but at one point tumbled down the stairs and hit his head.

When a random partygoer joked about him having too much to drink, Jack shoved him in a brief clash, but this did not go further.""

By all accounts, it sounds like Jack had "too much to drink" (judging by him going to wetherspoons first, then onto the party and then CCTV footage after with him looking potentially drunk and following a very unusual route). I just cannot understand a scenario in which he'd fall, hit his head, have an altercation and the 3 friends (2 female, 1 male) just ....let him walk out the house? It's so odd it beggars belief. Why didn't they call him a taxi? go home with him?

I presume his house key was with the bunch of keys? I wonder if the key comment was in reference to perhaps meaning 'I still have my house key, I'll be able to get in'. I think it's an odd comment, unnecessary to make. More necessary would be that he had indeed lost the keys..... Not that he hasn't lost them.
I'm baffled that maybe people at the party haven't been individually interviewed to help provide a clearer picture of the hours and events leading up to the disappearance.
JMO as always.

From the reports I have read, the airtag was attached to his house key and car key. To be specific, his car key was a Peugeot 208 key (here), his airtag was in a brown case (here) and his house key was a JMA-branded key (here). JMA slices are usually used by locksmiths to make a 2nd/replacement key (for what it's worth, I thought it's worth mentioning). It's pretty reasonable to think his parents owned the house and had the originals and would have had their key cut by a locksmith for Jack.

Agreed on all counts. The people at the party not being interviewed blows my mind. As much as I hate to say it, it's no wonder this hasn't been solved. If you don't gather as much info as you can from people he interacted with prior to him going missing, you're (the police) at a huge, huge disadvantage. The only really relevant info we've got to work with is that he may have been drunk, bumped his head, got into an altercation and seemingly left without his friends, then was seen on CCTV walking an unusual route.

As always, just my thoughts and opinions.