The mother of a young man missing for more than four months has said the recent coverage of Jay Slater’s disappearance has “brought everything back”.
Catherine O’Sullivan’s 23-year-old son Jack has been missing from the Hotwells area of Bristol since March.
The 52-year-old, originally from Neath in South Wales, said she sympathised with Jay Slater‘s mother, who yesterday said words could not describe “the pain and agony” she was feeling.
“My heart goes out to anybody in this situation, it’s unimaginable,” Mrs O’Sullivan said.
“From a mother’s perspective, that poor lady in Tenerife, she must be in hell because I know I am.”
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‘What on Earth has happened?’
Jack O’Sullivan has now been missing for 123 days.
In May, police appealed to more than 1,000 taxi drivers for any footage they may have of him.
“Every day gets harder,” his mother told Sky News. “We’re in a living nightmare. It is difficult to put it into words to be fair.”
“It’s just an extraordinary situation where we’re just not getting any answers. We’re not getting any closer to finding out what on Earth has happened,” she added.
Mrs O’Sullivan added: “When you see the amount of coverage and appeals [about Jay Slater], you wonder should we be doing more, should we have done more?
“It does ask questions of us, because initially we were in the hands of the police and just were very accepting that everything we were told was being done was actually being done.
“It’s just that as time’s gone on, we realise that things have been missed and not done as thoroughly as we thought they were.”
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‘Painful’ to be without ‘life and soul of the house’
Mr O’Sullivan, who was 22 at the time of his disappearance, was last seen on Saturday 2 March on his way home after a night out with friends.
The last confirmed sighting of him was at 3.13am on a grass area at the junction of Brunel Lock Way and Brunel Way in Bristol.
There are two further sightings, believed to be of Mr O’Sullivan, at around 3.25am and another at 3.38am.
The final sighting is on the Bennett Way slip road on the northern side of the River Avon.
Mr O’Sullivan is around 5ft 10ins tall and described as white, with short, brown hair.
He was last seen wearing a green/brown quilted Barbour jacket, beige woollen jumper, navy chinos and brown shoes with a white sole.
“Outwardly, to a lot of people he’d be quite quiet, quite shy really,” Mrs O’Sullivan said.
“Not a very outspoken person, but behind the scenes at home, he’s the complete opposite, the life and soul of the house.
“A sport fanatic. Really, really loves his sport, loves his football, loves his golf, loves tennis. And really clever. Very ambitious, very driven by anything he does. It has to be perfection.”
She said the house was an “extraordinary place to be” without him.
She explained: “It’s a place that I want to be because every part of it is filled with Jack but it’s very hard to live on a day-to-day basis, seeing everything remains in the same spot.
“And that’s the way it has to be, I’m not going to change that, but it’s painful.”
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£20,000 reward on offer as ‘anguish’ continues
A website called Find Jack O’Sullivan has been set up with the aim of finding any information.
The website says Mr O’Sullivan’s phone has not been found, but its location was traced to an address on Granby Hill where it remained live on the network until 6.44am on the day he disappeared.
A £20,000 reward has been offered for information which directly leads to Mr O’Sullivan being brought home.
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Avon and Somerset Police said its investigation into Mr O’Sullivan’s disappearance has been “extensive”.
“This investigation has included reviewing and re-reviewing more than 100 hours of CCTV footage, carrying out expert-led searches by land and water involving multiple teams and issuing multiple appeals to the public and media for information,” the force said.
The police added: “We’re continuing to seek further guidance and support from national experts, including an oceanographer, and we’ll be following any advice they offer.
“Sadly, despite the efforts carried out to date, we’ve been unable to find Jack. We fully recognise the distress and anguish this has had on Jack’s family and our thoughts remain very much with them.”
