THE family of missing student Jack O’Sullivan who vanished without trace six months ago say they have received ransom demands.
Mum Catherine O’Sullivan says they continue to search everyday for the 23-year-old who was last seen in the Hotwells area of Bristol as he walked home from a night out.
But in an interview to mark six months since his disappearance, Catherine said they had lost faith in the police search – and had hired a private investigator.
And she said although thousands of people had been supporting the hunt – they had also been targetted by trolls trying to make money out of their trauma.
She told the BBC: “I have had messages suggesting that Jack is being held and asking for ransom amounts for him.
“People telling me that awful things have happened to him and where I might find him.
“But what would anybody do in my situation? I have to read them, as bad as I know it is, putting myself through hell at times, but I can’t ignore anything.”
The last confirmed sighting of Jack was at 3.13am on Sunday March 2 as he walked onto a grass area at the junction of Brunel Lock Way and Brunel Way.
Police say they have spoken to hundreds of cabbies in the area and reviewed thousands of hours of CCTV but Jack has still not been found.
Since Jack went missing, the Facebook group Find Jack has gained more than 57,000 members from all over the world.
It has a constant stream of posts, pleas, and theories about his disappearance.
But his family say they have ”lost all faith” in Avon and Somerset Police’s investigation and are continuing to search everyday themselves.
Catherine told the BBC: “I go out daily. 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.
“We’re no further forward with sightings or anything that would give us an indication of which direction Jack went, or where he is now.
“We’re down to a once-a-week email contact from police only, but we’re going nowhere. They’re not answering the questions.”
Following the family’s formal complaint in June, the police made a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The family say mistakes were made early on in the search and that CCTV footage, placing him in a different location at a different time, was initially missed.
It was only found by Catherine when she was allowed to view some of it for herself.
“We feel very unsupported by the people we think should have done the most,” she told the BBC.
Police say the location was considered and found to be inaccessible, and that CCTV was checked and did not show Jack.
Avon and Somerset Police say that since Jack’s disappearance, more than 20 different teams and departments have been involved in the investigation.
They have been supported by other agencies and emergency services, such as the fire and ambulance service, National Police Air Service, and RNLI.
A spokesperson said more than 100 hours of CCTV have been reviewed, 200 hours of searches on the river and the surrounding banks, mounted police searches from Bristol city centre to Flax Bourton, 40 land searches, and 16 drone deployments.
The force says it has received almost 100 calls from the public with possible sightings, and eight media appeals have been issued.
Assistant Chief Constable Joanne Hall said: “Our staff and officers remain committed to doing everything we can to find Jack and we do not underestimate what a distressing time this has been, and continues to be, for his family.
“When I look at missing persons investigations [in Avon and Somerset] over the last year, we’ve had around 5 and a half thousand.
“Missing people are somebody’s loved ones, they’re somebody’s family, and we don’t close the door on that.”
The force renewed its appeal for witnesses and said they will update Jack’s family when their handling of the complaint is finalised.
