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

  • #581
THANK YOU @infohuntah !!! I’ve been thinking this for a long time. In his last sighting, he was NOT near enough to a body of water to accidentally fall in.

My partner was born and raised in Bristol. Those who are from there know that area very well - it’s not super central, but you certainly drive through that area on the main road beside the swing bridge often. My partner is quite insistent that anybody who is from Bristol is familiar with the swing bridge and that area of town.

This is why the loops / going back on himself, in fact the entire route itself, is so perplexing to me. Nobody in their right mind would take that route unless:

a. they didn’t know the area & got lost / thought that would be the best route.

b. they were planning to be in that location.

If he was going home, the simplest route would avoid the swing bridge area altogether. This is the same for his brother’s house, or in an attempt to get a taxi. There is not a single reason, that I can think of at least, as to why he chose that route, or went near to the water at all (unless this was perhaps a suicide situation.)

There is one theory I have, but it still doesn’t quite make sense. I have mentioned this before, but is there a possibility he went on Apple maps, not knowing the route home, and selected the “directions” button. I’ve often done this on the past, and there are options for each mode of transport; walking, driving, public. Sometimes, you’ll click “directions” and it will assume you’re in a car, giving you a route that you can drive on. This obviously does not include walking routes - I think Jack may have made this mistake and walked to the bridge area, not realising he was given the driving-only route. He was looking at his phone I believe in one or two of the CCTV sightings. However, this would mean he was not familiar enough with the area to realise that this was obviously not the most convenient route…

JMO
 
  • #582
THANK YOU @infohuntah !!! I’ve been thinking this for a long time. In his last sighting, he was NOT near enough to a body of water to accidentally fall in.

My partner was born and raised in Bristol. Those who are from there know that area very well - it’s not super central, but you certainly drive through that area on the main road beside the swing bridge often. My partner is quite insistent that anybody who is from Bristol is familiar with the swing bridge and that area of town.

This is why the loops / going back on himself, in fact the entire route itself, is so perplexing to me. Nobody in their right mind would take that route unless:

a. they didn’t know the area & got lost / thought that would be the best route.

b. they were planning to be in that location.

If he was going home, the simplest route would avoid the swing bridge area altogether. This is the same for his brother’s house, or in an attempt to get a taxi. There is not a single reason, that I can think of at least, as to why he chose that route, or went near to the water at all (unless this was perhaps a suicide situation.)

There is one theory I have, but it still doesn’t quite make sense. I have mentioned this before, but is there a possibility he went on Apple maps, not knowing the route home, and selected the “directions” button. I’ve often done this on the past, and there are options for each mode of transport; walking, driving, public. Sometimes, you’ll click “directions” and it will assume you’re in a car, giving you a route that you can drive on. This obviously does not include walking routes - I think Jack may have made this mistake and walked to the bridge area, not realising he was given the driving-only route. He was looking at his phone I believe in one or two of the CCTV sightings. However, this would mean he was not familiar enough with the area to realise that this was obviously not the most convenient route…

JMO
Actually if Jack was planning to walk home there are only two direct routes from Hotwells over the New Cut of the Avon: Brunel Way, a southern extension of the Plimsoll Swing Bridge, and the Ashton Avenue Bridge. The latter used to be a two level bridge with the road on top and the railway crossing below. When the Plimsoll Swing Bridge opened, the road bridge was dismantled. and later the rail track was removed and the bridge became pedestrian only. In the last few years it has also been used as a Metrobus route, but unless you know the area VERY well - and I used to - you wouldn't even know it was there. The Metrobus goes to Long Aston Park & Ride, so maybe Jack and his family used it when they came into Bristol from Flax Bourton, but it's a very circuitous route..

But heading over the Swing Bridge is a perfectly logical way to head home once Jack had got to the Cumberland Basin.


Jack went to Clifton College where I believe his mother was a matron and his father also worked. So he would have been very familiar with the road system, but not as a pedestrian maybe. It can be very confusing, especially when it is dark, and you are "tired and emotional". Jack was last spotted in an "unconfirmed" CCTV image walking up Bennett Way, which heads back towards the water. Why wasn't he seen after that? If you leave the bridge via the stairway at the top of Bennett Way to the right/west there are plenty of places you could jump/.fall in/be pushed in and your body might float on the tide downriver to the Severn Estuary.

Top of stairway: Street View · Google Maps

Bottom of stairway: Google Maps

A few points where the river is tidal:




Of course there is the question of Jack's phone but we don't know what happened to it, or why that or any other possessions of Jack's haven't been found. If he headed up Granby Hill towards his brother's house or walked back towards the party on Hotwell Road why no further CCTV images of him?
 
Last edited:
  • #583
There is one theory I have, but it still doesn’t quite make sense. I have mentioned this before, but is there a possibility he went on Apple maps, not knowing the route home, and selected the “directions” button. I’ve often done this on the past, and there are options for each mode of transport; walking, driving, public. Sometimes, you’ll click “directions” and it will assume you’re in a car, giving you a route that you can drive on. This obviously does not include walking routes - I think Jack may have made this mistake and walked to the bridge area, not realising he was given the driving-only route. He was looking at his phone I believe in one or two of the CCTV sightings. However, this would mean he was not familiar enough with the area to realise that this was obviously not the most convenient route…
(RSBM) Is there anything in Apple Maps that one could accidentally trigger that would bring up a video (or something) and use a lot of data? I'm wondering if that's a possible explanation for the 'data spike' that they've mentioned.

Also, maybe a basic question, but why did Jack have his car keys on him? Where was his car? Did he think that he might be able to drive home afterwards?
 

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