Adrian Lynch: the investigation so far…

Thursday 02 June 2016

The police operation to find Adrian Lynch – codenamed Operation Panama – began shortly after the 20-year-old went missing in the early hours of the morning of 5 December.

Adrian had been out with friends for a work-do in town before getting a taxi back to the Carrefour Selous area around five minutes after midnight.

Over the next two hours, he was seen or heard in the area several times – he was captured on CCTV footage, was spoken to by a homeowner after he entered a house, and was seen or heard shouting by several people in the area.

There have been no confirmed sightings of him past 2.30 am on Saturday 5 December – although his phone, wallet and belt have been recovered.

As soon as he was reported missing, the police investigation designated him as a “high risk missing person” – and the operation to find him has been unprecedented in scale, with police using specially-trained sniffer dogs, aerial drones, diving teams, sonar equipment and the air search plane, and spending thousands of hours combing the area around where Adrian was dropped off, the sightings and his home.

Police have stressed that they are open to all possibilities and that they continue to investigate Adrian’s disappearance, but their working theory is that he was intoxicated on the night that he went missing, started suffering from hypothermia, and curled up to take shelter somewhere and died.

Police have spoken to 1,000 people and covered 300 properties as part of their search, and the continuing effort has seen posters with his photograph and full description issued in English, Portuguese and Polish around the Island.

The police still want to speak to:

-       The occupants of a silver car (possibly a VW or Citroen Saxo) parked outside David Hicks at about 23:00 on Friday 4 December.

-       Two people with a motorcycle at the junction of Le Neuf Chemin and St Lawrence main road (just north of the entrance to St John’s Manor) at about midnight.

-       A man with a dark pullover hitchhiking up Mont Felard at about 00.30 on Saturday 5 December. 

-       A man in a mustard-coloured suit walking north past Regal at about 01:15-01:30.

-       A taxi moving south past Thistlegrove at 02:33.

-       A man with white hair hitchhiking south at about 03:00 in the Three Oaks area.

-       Two men who were seen hitchhiking north at about 03:00 in the area of Steven Cohu Antiques.

A fortnight ago, the police issued an updated timeline of all of the sightings – confirmed and otherwise – before Adrian disappeared in the early hours of Saturday 5 December.

-       00:15 and 00:35 – A number of sightings of Adrian in the vicinity of the Carrefour Selous junction with La Grande Route de St Laurent. All are indicative of a state of intoxication ranging from unsteady walking to lying in the road.

-       01:00 – A report of a male shouting and swearing in La Rue de la Golarde, and very shortly after a male fitting Adrian’s description walking east along this lane.

-       01:05 – Adrian walks into a house in La Rue de la Golarde, occupants are still awake and in the lounge and question his presence before he leaves and is then seen walking west along Rue de la Golarde. Adrian is polite and appeared to have mud on his trousers.

-       01:40 – 01:45 – A householder in Le Passage hears a voice at the front of his house and on checking sees Adrian sitting on his wall, there was no-one else around. The householder enquired as to what he was doing and if he was ok. Adrian apologises for disturbing him and leaves heading west along Le Passage. At around this time (believed very shortly afterwards) a taxi driver passes Adrian in the lane who is however now walking east towards the junction with La Grande Route de St Laurent.

-       02:00 – Adrian is seen walking northwards on La Grande Route de St Laurent near to the junction with La Fraide Rue.

-       02:00 – Someone is heard shouting and swearing on the s-bend near Bon Air Stables, and a person believed to be Adrian is seen walking northwards.

-       02:09 – CCTV at the Thistlegrove site captures Adrian walking north past the entrance, and then entering the yard at the front of Regal, before disappearing down the side of Regal. He re-emerges a few minutes later and is seen to walk south back past Thistlegrove at 02:17.

-       02:15 – 02:30 – A resident whose house backs onto the vehicular track leading south from La Rue de la Golarde into the Cooke’s Roses Farm complex hears their young child crying seemingly as they have been disturbed from sleep by someone shouting. It is very possible Adrian was walking back towards the very area he had started from, perhaps searching for his phone and wallet.