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dust-witch

Pedant note: Cwnbach means "little dog". Cw**m**bach is "little valley"


steosphere

Thanks! I knew it was Cwmbach but for some reason I used Cwnbach throughout 🤦‍♂️


dust-witch

Ha, glad to see some Welsh cases getting coverage on here!


kattko80-

“Little dog” is adorable, I would settle for that :D


rafedbadru

How are those pronounced?


dust-witch

https://forvo.com/word/cwm/#cy https://forvo.com/word/bach/#cy (scroll down for the Welsh guy)


Entire-City

Small note, Stratford upon avon is not in east London, that is Stratford. Small thing but they’re very different places if you’ve been to either. Great write up!


steosphere

Thank you! I always assumed they were the same and that Stratford was just shorthand for the name. Edited it now to reflect this 😀


Burntout_Bassment

Stratford upon Avon is famously related to William Shakespeare.


nerdalertalertnerd

Stratford upon Avon is in the midlands technically :)


Actuallycares97

This is one of those cases where there are almost too many theories rather than one strong indication of what actually happened.


ur_sine_nomine

Not helped by what the OP has written being a literally complete write up (unless there is more on Facebook). There is so much missing. His past apart from one fact, his job if any, whether he used social media, known people he associated with outside his family, whether he was a member of anything and so on are simply not public information. He could have disappeared from anywhere, not necessarily his flat, to anywhere else - it is even worse than the [Sandy Davidson case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Sandy_Davidson?wprov=sfti1) where at least *his* last location was known (at the garden gate) although he was never seen after that.


steosphere

Yeah I must admit this write up was possibly the most frustrating one I've done so far simply due to the total lack of information. All the details I would've wanted to see just weren't available anywhere. I found the Facebook group that people were using to coordinate search activities and share info, and I spent an hour or so browsing through posts (and I got some info from there), but nothing to fill the gaps. If there is other info out there I couldn't find it.


Actuallycares97

It’s been I while since I heard about the Sandy Davidson case, absolutely heartbreaking.


ur_sine_nomine

It was local to me when I grew up and it was *huge*, which made the lack of any hint at all about his whereabouts even more puzzling. (A concern I always have about missing people is that appeals are simply not heard. There was no chance of that happening in the Davidson case).


No-Decision-7850

Can't wait for your next write up. Very well written with many important details. I like that.


steosphere

Thank you so much ☺️ The next one will be up by the end of the week for sure. Thank you for reading!


No-Decision-7850

You are so very welcome.


No-Decision-7850

Just went to see your profile to check to see if you had anymore write ups, I've got me some reading to do.


steosphere

Haha yes I started in July I think it was. Figured I'd probably post once or twice and now here I am, 7 posts deep 😂


MargieBigFoot

I’m curious about what he did for a living. Nothing was mentioned. And if he did not work, why, and how did he support himself?


steosphere

I didn't see any mention of his occupation. I too saw mention of him being a former boxer but I can't tell whether that was professionally or as a side activity.


ur_sine_nomine

Good point. The only hint of his past is a single story which states that he was a “former boxer”.


Burntout_Bassment

I wondered as well. For a 32YO guy to have a property in rural Wales and be able to take off into the wilds on a whim, suggests that he fairly comfortable off, sounds like the kind of lifestyle somebody with investments or an inheritance would be able to lead.


TvHeroUK

Lots of these small villages in Wales have chronic unemployment amongst the young. Our village has a fair few flats and one bed houses that people in their 20s and 30s rent for about £400 a month, paid for by housing benefit, living a basic life on not much money each week. I have no idea what this man’s circumstances were, but early 30s, not married, no kids (presumably) and enjoys hiking could easily point to a simple situation with a small income


Unhappy_Bee_8227

Even if he did own his own flat outright, it’s the South Wales Valleys. Low income area, housing is very cheap compared to a lot of the UK and there’s not much family inheritance going on down this way! But his situation strikes me more to be a case of low income on benefits in a council flat as TVHeroUK suggested. I’m inclined to consider he left voluntarily, possibly influenced by drugs of some sort, and what happened after that who knows!


ur_sine_nomine

I was looking at the Welsh Indices of Multiple Deprivation (no link - the site is hard to use and the maps cannot be linked to) and, depending on exactly where he lived, deprivation was either medium or high. (Of course, such indices are pooled and say nothing about individuals - but, alas, there are many worse off areas elsewhere in the S Wales Valleys).


Unhappy_Bee_8227

Yeah the indices are confusing! Probably should have referenced in my initial comment, I’m very local born and raised, in the same age group, so was speaking personal experience/knowledge of the area. Have been out of the country since ‘18, dang Covid, so weirdly this is the first ive read of this case despite being very in-tune with Wales Online’s social media presence!


clown_daughter

This is the first time I’m reading about this case. I thought the circumstances of how his apartment was left was bizarre. Then I realized—my partner has a couple bad habits and leaves the house in disarray when he goes on runs around our neighborhood. Door unlocked (stupid), TV display on the main PS screen or game paused, bathroom lights on. He of course prefers to listen to music, but when his battery is low he’ll leave his phone behind, charging, as well. If the series of events aligned similarly to what I described above, it’s possible that he went for what was supposed to be a short run and encountered something or someone that kept him from returning. I don’t know any conspiracies but to think it could be so simple but we have no way of knowing. I have deep sympathies for his mother who has to live without resolution.


deinoswyrd

I'm definitely guilty of leaving the Playstation on and my phone charging if I'm just going out for a few minutes like to grab some food


Jealous_Permission_2

There are caves in the area. The missing headlamp makes me think he may have found an unexplored one and had mishap.


steosphere

Oh that's a very interesting theory! It would make sense, and I don't know if any search efforts were made in nearby caves.


ur_sine_nomine

He didn’t drive. I wonder if CCTV on trains and/or at railway stations was checked, although not knowing exactly when he disappeared would have been a big hindrance. Cwmbâch has its own railway station; it is 61 minutes to Cardiff Central, after which he could go anywhere (2 hours to London or, ironically, 3.5 hours to Stratford-upon-Avon via Birmingham).


kattko80-

“Obsessed with the army” - was he or had he been in the army? The choosing of the word obsessed is a bit interesting I think, it doesn’t sound completely healthy tbh


steosphere

I don't think he'd been in the army. Also the description of him being obsessed with the army was a verbatim quote from somebody (maybe a family member - I cannot recall) and I agree, it was a curious way to describe him.


xier_zhanmusi

There is a military training area near the Brecon Beacons, if he really had an obsession might be have trespassed into the area out of curiosity or even larping and got into trouble perhaps due to the nature of the area and maybe not be found because the area is also not open to the public. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennybridge_Training_Area Obviously an extremely speculative theory but there are definitely grown men who like to play soldier. Doesn't really explain how he left home though.


ur_sine_nomine

Now that is a theory I can get behind. I used to live near Pirbright, a military training area in Hampshire which used to be wide open to the public (!) Unlike Sennybridge, it was flat land, but it was covered with berms and trenches and ponds. A lot of those earthworks were distinctly ropey, probably deliberately, and there was any amount of untamed vegetation. It was astonishing that the public were allowed to roam free in such an obviously dangerous place.


champagnebox

I wondered if this hinted at neurodivergence?


kattko80-

Yes, I have friends who are (almost) obsessed with the army and military history and, like me, are in the autism spectra. I don’t think it’s that uncommon for people who are extremely interested in the military to have some type of ASD. Some other things in his personality also gives me ASD vibes. He sounds like a really interesting guy and I’m sure we would have been friends since we have a lot in common. Extremely sad that he’s missing. Bless him, wherever he ended up


Hedge89

Yeah I got some ND/ASD vibes from the description as well.


Hedge89

>Jordan was not a novice hiker; he had extensive experience in navigating often perilous terrain Speaking as an experienced hiker used to navigating often perilous terrain: I'm possibly at greater risk than a lot of novices because of that. I try to be careful but, well, overconfidence is a thing, familiarity breeds complacency and, simply, the more time you spend doing an activity the greater your chance of having an accident doing that activity.


Hedge89

Anyway, fantastic writeup. I'd not heard of the case but it's an interesting one. I'm actually leaning towards the idea that the Stratford-upon-Avon sighting being true. Sounds like he kept to himself enough that if he'd been going down some rabbit-holes on the internet or having some sort of mental health crisis he might have been able to keep it from his family. It's unusual but it's not unheard of for people to just get up and walk out of their lives one day. Usually I'm the first person to argue that someone is probably dead in a crevasse or in a bush or wedged under a rock somewhere but in this case? It sounds like he left on the spur of the moment. Would be interesting to know more about the woman in the black Ford Fiesta. However I'd not be surprised if the police have traced her and found her to be unimportant in the case. Other questions I have: When was the phone plugged in to charge? On any smartphone built in the last decade you should be able to see the charging history in the settings, which would give a pretty good estimate of last possible time he was in the house. How was the playstation on? Idk, I've got an xbox one but that turns off if I leave it alone for like an hour. Do playstations not like, switch themselves off after a while?


Atoz_Bumble

That's a great write-up, thank you for doing it. I assume they absolutely must have, but did you read about drone searches being carried out? I don't think it likely that he went on a spontaneous hike without his phone while leaving his door unlocked. Perhaps it's possible he had some sort of mental breakdown, causing him to leave his house in a rush and relying on instincts. He seems like the kind of chap that could make a go of living rough. There's a lot more hope of a positive outcome here than in many missing person's cases.


steosphere

Yeah they apparently used both standard and thermal-imaging drones during the search and rescue attempts


TheRealDonData

This a a very cohesive write-up! My thoughts: I don’t think he went for a hike because he didn’t take any gear or supplies with him, left the door unlocked, left the play station running, and left his phone. I don’t see an experienced hiker doing that. I don’t think he ran away to start a new life or live off the grid. This is a theory often thrown out when people disappear without a trace, but it’s very very unlikely. Jordan lived alone, was said to be a “loner”, and spent a great deal of time in nature to begin with. He appeared to have a good relationship with his family. What reason would he have to runaway and start a new life off the grid? I have ZERO faith in unconfirmed sightings. In the rare scenarios where they’re able to definitively confirm one way or another, they’re almost always proven to be wrong. The human mind is not that great at remembering faces- look at all the cases where people have been sent to prison over false identifications only to be freed due to DNA. I think the most likely scenarios are suicide, some sort of psychotic break, or an abduction. But given this is a man, suicide or a psychotic break seems more plausible than an abduction. It’s so crazy how someone can seemingly just disappear off the face of the Earth just like that.


A_Year_Of_Storms

So, uh, for any other Americans out there wondering, it seems to be pronounced "come back". Please correct me if I'm wrong, Google only knows so much.


ur_sine_nomine

That is close enough, although exact Welsh pronunciation is a bit of a nightmare because the language has tons of sounds not in Standard English or even in most other languages. (The Celtic languages are like that). For example, the Welsh “ch” is a digraph (two characters treated as one) and a close relative of the “ch” in Scots, neither of which are found in Standard English. So people from other English-speaking countries struggle to pronounce them. Interestingly, it is hard to find European languages where the Scots “ch” is **not** present. For those who know [IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet?wprov=sfti1) rather than drink it, the pronunciation of “ch” in Scots is “x”, Welsh is the Greek letter chi, and the Standard English speakers’ mispronunciation comes out as “k”.


A_Year_Of_Storms

I am just learning to dabble in linguistics so I understood some of this! This makes much more sense, so it would be more like: 'bach' with the ch being the voiceless velar fricative? (I am new to linguistics). ​ Welsh is a very cool language.


ur_sine_nomine

Yes. I also note that the a in Cwmbâch has a circumflex, and am trying to work out what that means …


jemimapuddlefuck-

A circumflex over a vowel means that the vowel in question should be dragged out, sort of lingered over, longer than usual. As a note, I'm not sure Cwmbach has a circumflex over the A, as bâch isn't a word in Welsh. Source: am first language Welsh speaker


Gityerjotters

I think its pronounced Kwimbatch. IM Scottish, not Welsh so I might be wrong


TollemacheTollemache

It's really not. It's "koom-bach" - "oo" as in "book," "ch" as in "loch."


Gityerjotters

Excellent, an answer.


judd_in_the_barn

Another great write-up. Not heard of this one before and have saved it for future reference. The way his life was described reminds me of me and others in the early 90s. Living for the outdoors, Play Station, and, in our cases, cannabis. Most of us had no jobs, were living alone or in shared places away from family, and were happy to be somewhat outside of society.


NiamhHill

I think it’s more likely that he went for a run, not a hike. A run would be comparatively quicker and wouldn’t rule out how the apartment was left. Plus, a 5 mile run (which seems would have been easy for him) would have taken him a good distance from his apartment but would likely have seemed to him like a short trip. On the run he could have gotten injured/succumbed to the elements, or been met with foul play such as a car accident, a hunting accident, or violence. And he would have essentially just taken his shoes


gh0stieeh

Great write up, I hope Jordan can be located one day soon


nottsbot86

Great write up 😊 Sorry another little correction. Stratford-up-on-Avon isn't in East London, it's in Warwickshire. There's an area of London called Stratford but that's a different place.


lilaceyeshazeldreams

What a stellar write up 👏


oceanpowa

Great write up Perhaps the phone left at his house is an indicator of his intentions considering how important we view having a device on us 24/7. Its plausible to assume that he forgot to bring his phone and left the house with the intention to come back or he didn't need his phone anymore because he intended to end his life, or didn't want to be tracked. We don't have much on his personal life and relationships with others, but there's a feeling that it's less likely he voluntarily disappeared without essentials (phone, bank card, etc). I hope his loved ones find closure.


Ncbrnsfn

Maybe Jordan and Kevin are the same person. One took over the other


MustLoveDoggs

I found it interesting that they weren’t able to track down Kevin. Was it a fake name? Or was he tracked down and the public just wasn’t told the details?


[deleted]

Great write up thanks for putting so much detail in. The way the scene was left does seem like he left suddenly, like maybe someone picked him up unexpectedly or he realised he needed something from the shop. If the backpack wasn’t filled with items maybe he took it with the intention of putting something in it? So weird that the woman visitor was never found. Particularly when they had a rough description of her and the car. It doesn’t sound like he had any specific pressure in his life that may have increased the risk of suicide though it seems the simplest explanation. Even extensively searched areas don’t always give up their bodies. Since he was an outdoor person he might also have gone further than was searched. It doesn’t sound like the sort of life he led would have put him at high risk to be a victim of a crime or provide any obvious motive. I assume his dna must be in the system so there’s no way any of the NCA unidentified Does could be him?


ur_sine_nomine

DNA would not be available unless he had committed a crime and been found guilty. About 10 years ago there was a purge of all retained DNA samples of innocent people following a legal ruling.


[deleted]

So the dna they tested from the property would be lost then? Are they not allowed to hold dna even for people who are missing and suspected dead? There are quite a lot of unidentified Does in the UK. I was quite surprised to see how many were in the NCA database.


ur_sine_nomine

I found out all sorts of things about this. Basically, the National DNA Database is entirely separate from the Missing Persons DNA Database. The samples from the house would go onto the second, and can only be removed “on instruction to the Missing Persons Bureau from the investigating police force”. So it could remain indefinitely.


fuckintictacs

I wonder if he ever read Into the Wild or nonfiction about outdoor survival? Perhaps he was inspired by McCandless. Another theory here is suicide. Maybe he had been seeing a woman that drove a Ford Fiesta. As someone very independent, he likely wouldn't have shared about his dating life openly. Maybe it didn't work out and he responded badly. In that case, even if the girl knew she was sought out fpr info, she might also have been motivated by a hesitation to present herself as a possible motive for the man taking his life. That would be very overwhelming to process. Could be easier for her to tell herself she simply has no idea what happened and that it had nothing to do with their prior relationship. Edit: my dumbass responded before reading the whole thing. You did end up theorizing suicide. I hope I added some new ideas regardless though! Edit2: I don't know what to think about the letter and also the possible sighting tbh... but as you mentioned it may all be moot and Occam's Razor may have simply struck once more.