We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again.

There was an error processing your request. Please try again later.

Oliver McAfee was last seen in Israel on November 21

Oliver McAfee, 29, went missing in November while cycling through the Negev desert in the south of the country – and has not been heard from since. Initially it was thought he had simply got lost – but a subsequent search has turned up clues indicating his disappearance could be deliberate. First, a search team found pages from the Bible carefully weighed down by rocks in the area in which he was last seen, while handwritten notes quoting from the Bible were also discovered, including some referencing the story of Jesus losing himself in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. None of the clues led the searchers to Mr McAfee’s location – but they also found an apparent “chapel” made by him on top of a rocky desert ridge near the town of Mitzpe Ramon. A circle-shaped area of stones had been cleared and the sand had been flattened, probably with a bicycle tool.


Israeli police Oliver may be suffering from a psychotic delusion known as Jerusalem Syndrome

Raz Arbel, one of the volunteers looking for Mr McAfee, said: “He seems to have been doing all kinds of ceremonies that we don’t really understand.” His bicycle, hiking boots, camera, and wallet have also been found – but there was no sign of his phone nor his passport. Jerusalem Syndrome is a condition whereby people visiting the Holy Land suffer various psychotic religious delusions, and can even come to believe that they are figures from the Bible. Every year roughly 50 tourists suffer from delusions so strong that official intervention is required. A British tourist who tried to stab a policeman in 2011 had come to believe he was the anti-Christ whose mission it was to bring about the End of Days.


Dr Moshe Kalian, former district psychiatrist for Jerusalem, is an expert in the condition. He said: “I have never met this man [but from the reports that he was involved in some kind of religious experience in the desert, it certainly sounds like it could be a case of Jerusalem Syndrome. “Jerusalem Syndrome is not a mental disease by itself but is usually superimposed on top of a background of mental distress or disease that a patient has. Their psychotic ideas often lead them on a mission to Jerusalem.” Mr McAfee, a gardener who is originally from Northern Ireland, had spent much of 2017 travelling, and had been due to return to his home in Essex on December 1.

Israeli police A CCTV still appears to show Oliver near an Israeli military base

His friends raised the alarm on Christmas Eve and Essex Police subsequently discovered that he had not been seen for more than a month. The last reported sighting was by an American tourist on November 21. Friend Mark Fletcher said: “The first thing you would notice about Oliver is he’s quite shy and naturally quite quiet. “But once he opens up he’s a lovely guy with a big heart for helping people. He’s a deep thinker and thinks on things and you’ll often get messages after you’d seen him further thoughts on a subject.” Drones, dogs and dozens of volunteers have all been helping with the search for Mr McAfee. CCTV footage from an Israeli military base near Mitzpe Ramon caught an unidentified man moving in the darkness in the early hours of November 22, and it is thought this may have been him.