David O’Sullivan: Missing

CIRCUMSTANCES: Still Missing

DAVID O’SULLIVAN

Age: 25. Last Seen: April 07, 2017. LKP: Idyllwild Inn, Idyllwild, California

David was thru-hiking NOBO on the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. On April 6, 2017 he sent an email to his family from an Idyllwild library. O’Sullivan, who is from Ireland, intended to hike north into the San Jacinto Mountains the next day. He has not been seen since. There are several trails he could have taken to access the PCT from Idyllwild. We do not know which trail David took.

Cathy Tarr met with Con and Carmel O’Sullivan in November 2017. Since then Tarr has become the family advocate in the U.S. She pursues answers for the O’Sullivans using advanced aerial photography and drone image searching. She has organized many volunteer on-the-ground search efforts as well. We continue to look for David.

More about David by Carmel O’Sullivan

David was born on August 29, 1991 in Cork, Ireland. He was the second grandchild born to our family, preceded by his brother, Niall, nearly four years earlier. He and his brother were doted on by his grandparents and by their many Aunts and Uncles. It would be many years before more grandchildren arrived in Ireland to join them. They had one cousin born in London (in 1992) called Jeremy who became very close to David and who remained a constant in his life until David’s disappearance in 2017. 

David attended Saleen National School where many years ago my sister, brother, and I also attended. It was a small school (roll call 90) where he made friends for life. Some of these went on to become his best friends and who called regularly to our house over the years. While at national school he developed an interest in amateur drama and graced the stage on many occasions often bringing the house down with his acting. David went onto Secondary school in our local town attending Christian Brothers School. He was a good student excelling in English and Geography. He also did stand up comedy every year for the Christmas party and a few times he gave performances for local charity fund raisers. While at this school he did a sponsored head shave for Mary Mount, our local Hospice

David had a great interest in Media and did a one-year degree course in Media Studies. He then went to University College Cork to study where he received his Honors Degree in English and Philosophy. While attending UCC he did a weekly radio program and was interested in pursuing this line of work after gaining more life experience and seeing something of the world. He was an avid reader and his bedroom is lined with hundreds of books. He never came home from a shopping trip without some new author under his arm. His reading interests were varied and he could talk at length about his chosen subject. 

David’s interests included cycling, running, hiking, films, reading, drama and board games. Politics became an interest in his late teens. As a younger child, he did horse riding and obtained his black belt in Karate at the age of sixteen. He was a happy little boy, full of fun, and he had a great laugh.

While he was attending University he got a weekend job in a local garage, and after finishing College, he stayed on in a full-time capacity to save some money for travelling and to buy a car. He had always liked to hike and he and his friends often went off on day trips to our local mountain hiking. On a few occasions he went with his dad and some friends.

David had travelled on family holidays to England, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Tunisia, Canary Islands and New York. When he got older, he went on sightseeing trips with Con to Scotland, London and Washington.  He travelled to South Korea to visit Niall, and went to Thailand to visit Jeremy before embarking on his journey to hike the PCT.

Like I said, he was an avid reader, and some years ago he read the book by Cheryl Strayed about her journey on the PCT, and he decided to attempt it in 2017. He prepared as much as possible in our locality and set off full of enthusiasm, and the rest you know. 

David is a much loved member of our family and is greatly missed every day. Our world turned upside down in 2017 and will never again be the same. We have a new normal now and we would give anything to find David and know what happened to him on that fateful day in April 2017. We miss and love him.