If I could do magic, I’d find the missing student Jack O’Sullivan and return him, alive and well, to his desperate family. I return to the subject because today marks six months since he disappeared, seemingly into thin air, and it appears Jack is no nearer to being found today than he was back in March. Every day, his mother goes out to look for him and she says this: “My day is planned around which direction I’m going to look next, until I run out of areas I can feasibly check. “We basically climb fences, jump into ditches… it gives me the peace of mind that I know that area’s covered. I’m Jack’s mum, and my aim on this earth at the moment is to find Jack.” Can I possibly understand how and what she is feeling? Obviously not. But one would need a heart of stone to do not feel a terrible sadness.
In this report on the BBC website, Mrs O’Sullivan is extremely critical of the actions of the police, who she thinks have not done enough. Indeed, she has made a formal complaint about the police handling of the investigation. I offer no criticism of this, nor do I have a view, because I am, rightly, so far away from what is going on. Like everyone, if it turns out the police have failed to do their job properly, then potentially everyone benefits, except, very obviously, Jack and his family. The lessons learned and forward recommendations will not help bring him back, but they may have a positive effect on future missing cases, of which there were around 5500 in Bristol alone last year.
Someone, goes the argument, must have seen jack around Hotwells in the early hours of 2nd March 2024. Something like 400 vehicles may have passed by during the timeframe calculated by the police. But maybe they didn’t?
I’ve driven around the road system in Hotwells in the early hours many times, often on airport runs, and while I consider myself to be reasonably observant, as befits a former benefit fraud investigator, someone strolling around in the early hours of a Saturday morning is hardly an unusual sight. If I had been around on 2nd March, I may have seen something, I may not. It’s entirely possible that no one saw Jack, or if they did saw nothing untoward or unusual. The normal is not easily remembered.
I admit to feeling physically sick to read that various cranks and nutcases have been trying to exploit the family’s misery. Whether it’s fake mediums – all mediums are fakes, by the way – or out and out criminals trying to extract money from the family in exchange for information that might lead to Jack’s return, it’s been grim to watch. False hope is arguably worse than no hope at all. Yet what are Jack’s family to think about this? One person claims they know something that could lead to their son. Maybe one of these people is actually telling the truth? Dare the family rule them out straight away?
Social media has done its usual job in spreading the word, and unfortunately, the speculation, but the word alone is never enough. What the police really need is evidence, any evidence, that might lead to Jack. After six months of nothing, it seems that all they have is speculation. How can someone just disappear off the face of the Earth? It seems impossible to believe but maybe no one saw anything? I maintain the view that most people, the vast majority of people, are good people and on that basis, perhaps there’s no one holding back on anything? But that’s no comfort to the family. None at all. And this endless, agonising wait goes on.
I wish I could do magic and make everything right again. But I can’t and neither can anyone else. We can just hope and, if praying is what you do, pray for Jack’s return because at times like these days hope is all we have left.
The emotion I feel, as someone who is a million miles away from the personal hurt the family are feeling, is just sadness, tinged with a little helplessness. Yet if the family isn’t giving up, then neither should anyone else. Because without closure, this is a life sentence for Jack’s family and friends.