Every day has been a struggle for Catherine O’Sullivan since her son went out with friends more than two years ago and never returned home.
Her first thoughts when she wakes up in the morning are about Jack, and her last thoughts before she goes to sleep. She spends the time in between in a silent house, drained of the close-knit family’s once warm energy, and merely existing rather than living.
Her sole focus is on keeping up hope in her determined search for her son – pursuing leads, following up on potential sightings, hiring private investigators – as she accuses police of failing the family, and most importantly, Jack.
Ms O’Sullivan told The Independent: “Out of our family, Jack and I are incredibly close. I felt privileged to have such a close relationship with my children. We’d talk about everything, all his plans. Jack is very ambitious and really had a plan and a firm idea of what he wanted to do with his life. He’s really funny and quite mischievous. We had quite a lot of banter here as a family.
“Now, the house is just silent. There’s no energy here anymore. It feels like we’ve all lost our way, because we’re missing a very key part of it. It’s desperately sad.”
“Kind, caring” Jack O’Sullivan, who turned 25 last Saturday, went out with some friends in Bristol on 1 March 2024, first to the pub and then on to a party at someone’s house. Ms O’Sullivan described that evening as “normal”, with her son’s last message telling her not to wait up and that he would take a taxi back to the family home in Flax Bourton, just outside of Bristol.
However, she awoke at 5.30am to find he had not returned, which was seen as “completely out of character” for the law student. Frantic messages and calls were not responded to, and searches by Jack’s brother Ben, 29, and father Alan, 60, turned up nothing.
The 54-year-old said: “Not much has changed for me [since then], other than time has moved forward. Every day is sad, every day is a struggle. But we’ve all built up resilience to keep going.
“It’s really, really hard. It’s hard to keep the momentum up, my physical health, mental health. But I don’t feel like I have a choice… My sole purpose is finding Jack. Then doing my best with the rest of my time to be a good mother to my other son and wife to my husband.
“We support each other really well. It’s different levels of strain on each of us.”
After the family made a missing person report, it was established that Jack was last seen in the area of Brunel Lock Road and Brunel Way in Bristol at around 3.15am on 2 March 2024.
But Ms O’Sullivan claims “total incompetence” from Avon and Somerset Police is at least partly to blame for the family’s ongoing lack of answers. She says they have been left without support and forced to investigate themselves, after the force allegedly missed CCTV of Jack twice, and did not retain some footage, take some key witness statements, or follow up on some sightings.
“We’re desperate to find any information that can help – we can’t write this off as being one of those things, we have no idea what happened,” she said. “We’ve hired private investigators, digital experts, there are external things we’ve had to source – things we’d never know about in the normal world and that police should be doing… I don’t think the public have any idea of the failings of this situation.
“We feel like we have no voice here at all, and more importantly, Jack doesn’t.”
Ms O’Sullivan ended up reaching out to charity Missing People, and was put in touch with a support worker called Belen, whom she describes as “my angel”.
Missing People has now launched SafeCall – a free, confidential, round-the-clock service for the 72,000 children who go missing in the UK every year – after The Independent surpassed its £165,000 fundraising target. Ms O’Sullivan gave a moving speech to an audience gathered to raise money for the charity last month.
She told The Independent: “You just feel like you’re walking along a tightrope and then you’re going to fall off – everything is so uncertain, it’s a cruel way to live. If Jack could tell someone where he is or that he’s okay, or if someone could do that on his behalf, then that would be my ask.”
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “We know how difficult it is for Jack’s family that, despite extensive enquiries, we have not yet been able to find him or provide the conclusive answers they so desperately need. From the outset, we’ve always had a shared aim of finding Jack and this intention has been at the heart of every action we’ve taken and decisions we’ve made.
“Alongside our ongoing investigation, we have also drawn on specialist expertise and independent agencies to review, test and assure our work, ensuring that any further opportunities for enquiry are fully explored. At every stage, we have been led by the evidence and pursued the relevant lines of enquiry.
“It’s important to stress that this remains a live investigation. If anyone has information that could assist our enquiries, please contact us online through our website, or call 101, quoting reference number 5224055172.”
Following a complaint made by Jack’s family, the spokesperson said that an internal investigation found there was an acceptable level of service in 10 of the 11 allegations, while the force “fully” accepted the learning for the eleventh. It said an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) review “agreed with the majority of our findings”.
Anyone with information on Jack’s case is asked to reach out to his family here.
Please donate now to The Independent and Missing People’s SafeCall campaign, which has raised £165,000 to create a free, nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support. For advice, support and options if you or a child you love goes missing, contact safecall.org.uk
