THE MOTHER of a Cork man who has been missing in California for just over a year has said that she no longer believes her son is alive.
David O’Sullivan from Midleton, Co. Cork, has been missing since March 2017 when he was on a five-month journey of the Pacific Crest Trail from California to the Canadian border.
The trail is a 4,265-kilometre hiking route stretching over three states, which can take half a year to navigate.
He sent his parents an email from his hotel in the town of Idyllwild on 7 April 2017, just two weeks into the trek. That was the last contact David had with his parents.
David was reportedly supposed to meet with a friend in Santa Barbara but he failed to show up.
Since then, extensive searches for David have returned no trace.
Speaking to the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1 this morning, David’s mother Carmel revealed that she is not expecting to find her son alive.
She said: “There isn’t a moment of my day where I’m not thinking where could he be, what happened to him.
“We need to know how it happened. We need to find him. We really need to know what happened.”
When asked if she believed her son was alive, she said: “No, I’m afraid I don’t.”
"He’s a year gone, there’s been no activity on his bank account, and he’s a very loyal child.
“Knowing right from wrong was very important to him, and he wouldn’t do this to us.”
A fundraising page has been set up for David, and Carmel plans on travelling to California later this month to further assist in the search for her son.
When asked what she think might have happened to David, Carmel said she believes he may have died as a result of hypothermia, or a fall.
“He could have gone into a cave to get away from the cold, which makes it nearly impossible.
“There isn’t a night I sleep a full night and won’t say ‘where are you’. We haven’t had a Christmas, or birthdays. We put the presents money into the fund. I have to be ready and waiting for that call. But people are so kind when the chips are down.”
The description on David’s missing poster describes him as having black hair, blue eyes, wears glasses and stands at 5-foot-10.
David O'Sullivan is missing on the PCT please circulate the Police poster @PCTAssociation @pctnews #PacificCrestTrail #pct2017 pic.twitter.com/i5nFA1cACA
— Siobhán O'Neill (@Shiv_ONeill) August 1, 2017
