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Spanish authorities have paused an inquiry into the disappearance of British rugby player Levi Davis, who went missing from an Irish bar in Barcelona a year ago.
Authorities confirmed that the court’s probe had taken place, a decision that court sources described as ‘provisional’ after police searches yielded no results.
According to one insider, the case could be reopened if new evidence is discovered. The suspension has no bearing on a separate inquiry by Spanish authorities.
Mr Davis, a rugby union player and X Factor: Celebrity contestant, vanished on October 29, 2022, after traveling alone from Ibiza to Barcelona.
In April, police decided that Mr Davis, 24, drowned after a witness on a cruise liner claimed to have seen a man matching his description in the sea on the day he went missing.
Divers examined the region again in May, but discovered nothing to move the case further.
The information comes only days before the one-year anniversary of Mr. Davis’ disappearance on October 29, 2017.
The suspension of the case has no bearing on the continuing investigation by Spanish authorities. The probe, however, appears to be dormant.
Mr Davis’ disappearance remains a mystery to police, but the leading theory is that he drowned off the coast of Barcelona the day he went missing.
The Ealing Trailfinders winger was last spotted leaving the Old Irish Pub on the renowned Rambla in Barcelona.
At 10.05 p.m., security cameras saw him exiting the pub after only 35 minutes. While watching football on TV, he ordered a pint.
He walked north on La Rambla to the neighboring Hard Rock Cafe before returning south and towards the harbor.
Detectives said earlier this year that they discovered Mr Davis’ phone signal was last picked up by a telephone mast near the port in the early hours of October 30.
His passport was later discovered on a seat nearby a few days following his abduction.
Catalan police began looking for Mr Davis on November 8 after receiving a missing persons report from an Ibiza-based friend on November 12.
Officers also spoke to four crew members of a cruise liner docking in Barcelona at 6.30am on 30 October – the day after Levi disappeared – who reported seeing a man in the sea wearing the same light-coloured top as Levi.
They said the man shouted for help several times in English.
A lifebuoy was thrown down to him but a subsequent search by police and coastguard found no body.
Officials at first said drowning was only ‘one line of inquiry’ and that others hadn’t been ruled out.
Julie Davis, his mother, criticised the investigation by Spanish police as being ‘slow’.
She also claimed that her son was depressed after struggling with ‘money worries’ and ‘racial prejudice’ in his career at the time of his disappearance.
The case was handed over to a specialist investigative unit in February 2023.
Mr Davis was a Bath Premiership rugby union player from 2017 to 2020, when he joined Ealing Trailfinders. He signed with Worthing Raiders a year later.
In 2019, he appeared on Celebrity X Factor with fellow rugby stars Ben Foden and Thom Evans in the musical group Try Star. In 2020, he appeared on E4’s Celebs Go Dating.
