Police reveal details of tragic Irish student’s final hours before he suffered fatal injuries in Ios
Details of the last hours of a Dublin student who died in a fall on the holiday island of Ios have been pieced together by Greek police.
Andrew O’Donnell, 18, spent the evening socializing with friends in a series of venues before finally deciding to call it a day at 1:30am.
Then, when he tried to find his way back to his hotel alone in the dark, he appears to have lost his way and fell onto rocky ground within sight of the hotel.
Andrew’s friend and classmate Max Wall, also 18, had helped search for him in the hours before his body was found the next day. Max then collapsed and himself died shortly after hearing the news that Andrew had been found dead.
Full details of Andrew’s night out leading up to this double tragedy have now emerged in a police report based on interviews with numerous witnesses.
Details of the last hours of Dublin student Andrew O’Donnell (left) who died in a fall on the holiday island of Ios last weekend have been pieced together by Greek police. Andrew’s friend and classmate Max Wall, also 18 (right), tragically died hours after O’Donnell was found
Andrew spent the evening socializing with friends in a range of locations before finally calling it quits at 1:30am. When he then tried to find his way back to his hotel, alone in the dark, he seems to have lost his way and fell onto rocky ground (pictured) within sight of the hotel
The police report describes the Dublin group arriving on Ios around 2pm on 30 June. Andrew stayed at the Homer’s Inn hotel (pictured) where he shared a room with Senan Henry, also 18
The investigation revealed that within hours of arriving on the Greek island, Andrew had left to socialize – a magnet for young people who want to celebrate events such as finishing high school, as Andrew and Max had just done – last Friday.
Andrew and Max were among 70 students from St Michael’s College Dublin who went to Ios to celebrate the end of their secondary education.
The group was booked to stay in several separate hotels as due to their number of attendees they were unable to find one to accommodate the entire group.
The police report describes the Dublin group arriving on Ios around 2pm on 30 June. Andrew stayed at the Homer’s Inn hotel where he shared a room with Senan Henry, also 18.
After settling in with the couple, they took a bus together to Milopatas Beach around 7pm to start their night out.
Andrew and Senan first went to the FarOut Beach Club, a popular location among young people vacationing on Ios, arriving shortly before 8pm.
The two stayed there until 10pm, then decided to walk to Disco 69, described as the ‘hottest’ nightspot in Ios.
It is located on a strip in Hora, the island’s main town, where it is one of several bars and clubs on a strip popular with young people and usually busy into the early hours.
The report states: ‘At 11:00 PM they arrived in the city where they went to Disco 69 for entertainment and drank alcohol. Senan informed us that his friend Andrew left on foot to the accommodation where they were staying.’
According to the report, Andrew was reported missing to the Greek police by Senan on Saturday morning.
Flowers have been placed near where Andrew’s body was found on Sunday
That was the last time his cell phone showed his location and Andrew was close to the Homer’s Inn hotel.
It is believed he slipped and fell after getting lost trying to make his way back on foot over rough terrain – within sight of the hotel.
His body was finally found around 1:00 PM on Sunday, July 2, in the bushes on a rocky slope overlooking the Homer’s Inn.
The report says, “He [Senan] reported that at 3:00 AM on 7/1/23, his cell phone’s search application shows Gavin’s O’Donnell Andrew standing outside the Homers Inn Hotel. Since then he has lost sight of him and lost contact with him.’
The police report also states that on the night of 1 July, Andrew’s father Gavin himself called Ios police station from his home in Dublin and also reported his son’s disappearance, leaving his telephone number for officers to update him with any news .
Panos Gkikakis, manager of the Homer’s Inn hotel, told MailOnline that he was on duty when Senan returned without Andrew from their night out.
He said, “He just asked for a spare key to the room they shared because they only had one and it belonged to Andrew.
“He told me they had broken up, but he went to bed because he was sure Andrew would come soon because his location showed he was nearby.
“It wasn’t until the next morning that we all started to worry. That night, I went with his friends to the top of the slope where Andrew finally went to look for him. But it was dark and we saw nothing.
Friends of the two Irish students form a guard of honor on the island of Ios earlier this week as the bodies of their two friends left the Greek island
“It’s very sad to think that he lay there for so long but was so close to us.”
Final results of post-mortems on both Andrew and Max are not expected for ten days, but Greek sources have indicated that Andrew died from a fall from a height that left him with a concussion.
Max is believed to have had an existing heart condition that may have contributed to his death.
A medical source in Ios said: “We are waiting for the full results of the toxicological analysis carried out by specialists from the University of Crete.”