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Levi Davis – Murdered At Sea?

Part Two of a five part special investigation by Dan Evans and Tom Latchem into a missing person’s case with dark criminal undertones

A version of this article was first published in the July 2024 edition of Byline Times

Was Levi Davis seen a nautical mile out to sea in the central shipping channel of Barcelona’s busy commercial port, clothed, and shouting for help in the dead of night? If so, how did he get there and why could rescuers on scene in less than four minutes find no trace?

Byline Times has established that Levi could not have possibly swam there himself. So was he murdered? And what have the police done about it?

It’s 06:32 on Sunday 30 October 2022. The Maltese cruise ship MSC Bellissima is a nautical mile from the entrance to the southern mouth of Barcelona’s commercial port, initiating its docking procedure.

In the darkness, a young British crew member is walking deck number five on the ship’s port side when something unexpected is illuminated on the surface in its lights.

Rising from the tidal swells, 15°C at that time of year, a voice with an English accent is screaming: “Help me, help me, help me.”

In the predawn gloom, maybe 30 metres away, is a man – he thinks – of around 30 years old. He can’t make out the colour of his skin. He can see he’s clothed but no more.

The crewman cries “man overboard” and, by 06:33, the Bellissima’s bridge is being alerted over its internal systems. Thirty seconds later, its Man Overboard alarm sounds.

At 171,598 tonnes and carrying up to 4,500 passengers, the Bellissima is too big to abort its manoeuvre into the kilometres-long rocky breakwaters that funnel craft into harbour.

The faster response is to call in the Catalan Coast Guard. At 06:34, the Bellissima broadcasts a satellite position for the man in distress. His location is close to a floating radio beacon for traffic using this central two-way channel into port, called the Sierra Buoy.

At 06:35, a life ring is thrown from the ship’s starboard rear quarter, catching the wake of the 316m vessel, as three more passengers report hearing yells from the water.

At 06:35:50, a Maritime Rescue boat arrives at the scene and is quickly followed by another, and then five more from the police and Civil Guard. A helicopter scrambles above, tracking the southbound current as it washes away from the Spanish landmass.

The wind speed is two to three knots – ‘light air’ strong enough to push small ripples across the sea’s surface. The search goes on for almost 12 hours but once a head count of those on the Bellissima and other ships in the area shows no one missing, it is called off at dusk.

Whoever was in the water – clothed, fighting for life, and fully four kilometres from the port’s public areas – had vanished in less than four minutes.

PART ONE: ‘My Name Is Levi Davis and My Life Is in Danger’ – Reopening the Case of the Rugby Star Who Disappeared

Part One of a five part special investigation by Dan Evans and Tom Latchem


A Case for Murder

When Levi first disappeared there was an initial flurry of media interest fuelled in part by the public speculations of a private investigator who’d volunteered to solve the mystery. Febrile headlines about alleged £100,000 drug debts unpaid and supposedly imminent arrests of shadowy third parties muddied the water early. But as each line of inquiry came to nothing, so public attention dwindled.

Byline Times has seen the official findings of the Catalan authorities. No evidence is recorded of a body washing up or being caught in nets, as experts suggest might have been expected after a couple of days or weeks. 

And beyond a very belated search by divers of the port breakwaters’ hidden areas in May 2023 and remote scans of the seabed and dykes of the nearby River Llobregat delta the following July, there appears to have been no further critical assessment of the sighting.

For example, nowhere in the findings is the obvious question posed as to how exactly Levi – as the Spanish police assume it was – could have possibly found himself at sea under these circumstances.

This newspaper has spoken to two maritime experts who agree Levi – who was a weak-to-average swimmer – simply could not have got out to the Sierra Buoy in the dark on his own.

“It would be practically impossible to swim out to this beacon from land under these circumstances,” said shipping commentator Peter Elson. 

“You’d lose your sense of direction almost immediately – in seconds. If you are not a great swimmer it would be a complete nightmare. Drinking too much seawater or getting run down by a ship is quite likely. Clothed, it would be even more difficult. It is therefore very unlikely that this person arrived at this location in the ocean without the involvement of a third party.”

Dr Emili Garcia Ladona, a senior researcher for Spain’s Institute of Marine Sciences agrees. He said: “In the dark, even with relatively calm conditions, with the maritime traffic, the sea agitation produced by such huge navigation vessels is enough to lead to confusion.

“It is not the same as swimming in a pool. People not trained to swim at sea will tire

faster, and under stress even faster still. Considering the temperature range in seawater at the end of October, hypothermia will set in quickly.

“Then there are the currents to fight against. From sea level, it would be hard to focus on a reference point like the Sierra Buoy or gauge its distance properly. Finally, the point where he was detected is in the middle of the traffic separation lines of one of the entrances to Barcelona harbour [which is a high traffic zone].”

These expert opinions raise questions about a key conclusion of the Catalan inquiry – that no evidence of criminality was discovered. Well-placed Mossos sources have confirmed that beyond the taking of interviews from cruise ship witnesses, the only other enquiries made were the physical sea and river searches conducted seven and nine months later respectively.

Julie Davis said: “From the description of the person crying for help, it’s clear they didn’t want to die. To me as a layperson, it is hard to see an innocent explanation.

“The fact they were abandoned in the water amounts in my mind to one of three things; either there was an accident and he fell in and someone didn’t report it and just left him there to die, or he was kidnapped and escaped from a vessel trying to save himself, or someone was trying to murder him.

“All three possibilities suggest crime. But the investigating authorities don’t seem to see that and I do not understand why.”


Twelve Vessels

Byline Times has obtained historic mapping data of the seagoing traffic around the port on the night in question.

According to ship tracking and maritime analytics provider marinetraffic.com 12 vessels travelled in close proximity to the Sierra Buoy in the six hours between the last ping of Levi’s phone from a mast at the port’s cruise ship wharf and Man Overboard alarm on the MSC Bellissima.

The position of the MSC Bellissima at 0632 on 30 October, 2022, when it raised a Man Overboard SOS while approaching the Port of Barcelona. There were a number of vessels, represented by the coloured dots and arrows, but whose identities we have anonymised, nearby at the time © marinetraffic.com

At the furthest plausible periphery, a small UK-owned ‘pleasure’ yacht and an oil tanker were moored approximately 1,000m away all evening. But a dozen others passed the exact spot, including three container or cargo ships, one oil tanker, one ferry, and two cruise ships. Also in the area were three ‘pilot’ boats, whose job it is to guide large ships in and out of the harbour.

These include one which goes past the location where the MSC Bellissima reported the man just before it raised an SOS after which its pilot boat doubled back to be ’first’ on the rescue scene. It was then joined within 20 minutes by two other pilot boats. All three then appeared to search the area where the man was spotted.

Byline Times has put questions about the sighting and its significance to the Mossos d’Esquadra. It and the overseeing court declined to comment. Instead, they told the Davis family to hire lawyers if they wish to ask any further questions. 

A Mossos insider did however reveal the limited extent of its enquiries. They said: “If a boat sees something strange or relevant it has an obligation to send a signal to the harbour authorities. We checked the related records and the only relevant incident was the cruiser with the man overboard alert.”


Flashing Light

Then there is the significance of the Sierra Buoy itself – which only adds further to the mystery. In the report, the buoy is mentioned as a mere detail. And yet its two-by-two metre base, though listing with the waves, is anchored to the seabed.

The Sierra Buoy close to where a man was spotted in the sea off the coast of Barcelona © Salvamento Maritimo / X

Within its four-metre structure are housed radio transponders, solar panels and weather instruments topped by a flashing light. It also has ropes attached at the base and a smaller pedestal float (as seen in the above photo) alongside, which is more accessible from sea level than the main section which, Dr Garcia Ladona said, could sustain a person “for a few hours without a problem”.

Julie added: “The Mossos seem to have decided that Levi probably drowned and then concluded that because they could find no body then there is no evidence of crime. 

“This seems to me to be a completely flawed approach. In my opinion, the opposite is much more likely.”


‘Jumping at Shadows’

Two weeks before he headed to Ibiza, Levi Davis spent three days with his university friend Mike Guida in Berkshire.

“Levi had been staying with me on and off for about three weeks,” Mr Guida told Byline Times. “He’d nip to London for a bit and then he’d come back. He’s one of my closest friends so it was pretty normal for him to come visit on the fly.”

Among many conversations during the period (with several other friends too) Levi talked about going to Barcelona.

“He was enjoying his music and wanting to get his life back on track after some setbacks with his rugby. He’d done his Anterior Cruciate Ligament which is quite a serious knee injury,” Guida said. “He said a few times he wanted to go to Barcelona for inspiration.”

Then, during their last time together, over the first weekend of October 2022, Levi acted out of character. While celebrating a birthday at a local pub, he became suspicious of two men drinking there.

“Levi was convinced they were undercover police watching him,” Guida said. “They were just two random blokes in the pub. Nothing sinister. But he wouldn’t have it. He was jumping at shadows.”

He knew that Levi had been using cannabis and initially put his behaviour down to the effects of the drug. Levi later played it down, telling another friend he had known the men weren’t police, and that he was “making a joke” out of a life “situation” he had now “woken up to”. But Guida knew that Levi’s smoking had become heavier since an emotional breakdown a few months earlier in his kitchen.

“He was crying in my arms,” Guida recalled. “It was his lowest point of vulnerability in the six years I’d known him. He told me ‘I messed up. Someone is blackmailing me’. “He said the person worked for major TV networks but was adamant that he couldn’t say who, but he did mention his first name.” Levi also told Guida he had stuff on his laptop “that he couldn’t show me for my own safety”.

“I remember it clearly,” Guida said. “That computer was his life. He went nowhere without it.”And yet, by the time Levi left Britain two weeks later, the laptop – and whatever was on it – was gone.

“He went to a party in a hotel in London and lost it there,” said one of two sources who confirm this account. “He searched for it for days afterwards. He was really, really, upset.”

Seeing Levi in distress troubled Guida greatly. He believed what his friend was saying. “He was extremely honest and loyal to people he trusted,” said Guida, who said he felt powerless to help. “I didn’t know what to do. Levi was not a stupid guy. He was trying to protect his mates. It was difficult to see,” he added.

Byline Times has since learnt that Levi later tracked the laptop using his iCloud ‘FindMy’ function but he vanished before he could try and recover it. He had also been worrying about people accessing his communications through malware on his devices. “He talked about people hacking into his information – into his laptop,” said Julie.

“Certain things were going on with his accounts which were odd. He thought they had got into his personal details. It was around the time his laptop went missing – about a month before he went to Ibiza.”

An analysis of Levi’s digital footprint showed that his email address, phone number, date of birth and a password appeared in an open-source data breach in March 2020. Although it hasn’t been forensically confirmed that bad actors used this or any compromised data to unlawfully access Levi’s private information, his social media accounts have been found to have exhibited unexplained activity.


Security Code

Levi’s brother Nathan has shown Byline Times new evidence regarding Levi’s WhatsApp. On 2 and 5 March 2023 his account generated a new security code on four occasions, which according to WhatsApp is: “likely because you or your contact reinstalled WhatsApp, changed phones, or added or removed a paired device.”

Nathan said: “Suddenly my phone just said ‘your security code with Levi changed.’ The last time I’d had a notification like that was the day he was travelling to Barcelona and since then it’d been complete silence.

“I thought it was really weird. Nothing had changed with my phone so I thought that meant activity on his side. I messaged him as soon as I spotted it – just said “bro”. But there was no reply. It still made me feel better – that he was alive. But now I don’t know what to believe.”


Instagram

Levi was a heavy Instagram user with more than 19,000 followers in 2022. According to a former advisor, Levi would often respond to “random people” and “didn’t always protect himself enough” on social media.

Instagram has been a particular focus for speculation. Following his disappearance there were reports in British media that up to 38 contacts had been deleted from Levi’s account. A private detective claimed at the time that the deletions may have been intended to “obstruct or mislead” any investigations, suggesting they were the work of sinister third parties unknown.

We have since established that, although Levi’s music label Ten West Records had account permissions to program posts, leading to confusion about online activity after he vanished as new material appeared online, it had no permission to make the deletions, which were tracked by Levi’s friends in the UK.

It leaves open the inference that either Levi himself or an unknown party was curating his followers’ list. Julie said: “I feel as if there is so much important information in Levi’s digital life that has just been overlooked when it could hold vital information.”


A Bag of Clues?

The last time Mike Guida saw his friend, on 3 October 2022, Levi left behind an old kit bag of belongings so he could “travel light”. Inside were documents Guida now believes may be relevant to his disappearance, but which have never been considered by police.

They include a piece of white paper, seen by Byline Times, on which Levi noted in blue ballpoint details of a dating website and a username with a strange spelling. It’s potentially significant since Levi travelled to Barcelona apparently to meet an unknown entity he met online.

“It struck me as really odd,” said Guida. “There’s hardly any reason these days to write something down on paper, especially a username and a website. Levi had an iPhone so he’d usually just save it in there. He left all this stuff behind and now it’s impossible to look at it without wondering ‘are these clues?’”

Byline Times has established that the website in question, which has private chat functions for connecting people nationally and internationally, does have an account with the same unusual username.

We got in touch with the website’s owner to ask whether he had been contacted by police in connection with Levi. He declined to comment specifically, but said: “We always cooperate with law enforcement enquiries and we have a well-established process in place to do this.”

In the Instagram post, Levi described being made to “conform” by his blackmailers and the impact of that. He said: “A metaphor for this would be being in a corner in a foetal position. That’s what I was – scared.”

Also in the black hold-all were personal notes Levi wrote in the three months before he vanished that have a bearing on his case. Byline Times has chosen not to go into the details beyond confirming they mirror Levi’s assessment of his own mental health, and feature a cartoon self-portrait huddled in a ball and shaking.

Despite Levi’s bouts of mental crisis, his friends never believed he would deliberately hurt himself. Mike Guida said: “He had too much pride. He would rather cut off a hand than kill himself. He had a way of turning on that smile of his and telling himself it was all going to be okay.”


Ibiza

Levi landed in Ibiza on 18 October 2022. The party island was waving goodbye to the hedonistic hordes as the last of its infamous super-club closing parties wrapped up after another long and profitable season.

Levi, though, had travelled without his medication. Under the weight of more than two years of blackmail, he had occasionally turned to recreational drugs to cope. By his own admission, he developed periodic dependencies, mostly with marijuana but also other substances.

Around three months before he disappeared, a doctor in the UK diagnosed post-drugs psychosis. Levi disputed the opinion. In his view, if he was paranoid, he had good cause to be. And yet it seems self-evident from the tenor of his Instagram appeal that Levi was, in his own words, “not myself”.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed among his family and mates in the UK. After the pub incident, Mike Guida and others tried to dissuade Levi from going to one of the world’s great hedonism capitals.

Levi agreed the temptations of Ibiza might not be best for his mental health, and decided to go Interrailing in Europe instead. And then, without explanation, he changed his mind at the last moment.

Changing plans: WhatsApp messages between Levi and his friends shortly before he left for Ibiza © Supplied

“​​Fuck sake Levi thought you said you weren’t going to Ibiza you melon,” one close friend wrote in a group WhatsApp chat. “Ahaha plans change baby, c’est la vie,” Levi wrote back.

But when another commenter chipped in: “Don’t die out there you melt,” Levi gave another glimpse into the troubles he spoke of online. “Well death is always on the table,” he wrote, “enjoying myself in the waiting room, seen as though I’m somehow mental.”

Levi’s host in Ibiza was Richard Squire, a 47-year-old ‘global brand and marketing consultant’, according to his Instagram profile, and long-term island resident whom Levi had met through mutual friends on the rugby and X Factor scenes.

Mr Squire paid for Levi’s flight and the pair were close, but Levi hadn’t mentioned much about him to family and friends back in the UK.

While he was there, Levi set up a photo shoot with a fashion photographer, Ade Adetona, to help promote his second single, which was due to be released a few weeks later under the performing name LEDA. Mr Adetona said Levi seemed focused and happy.

“When I saw him, he was quite fit,” Mr Adetona later told the BBC. “He was getting up and doing his circuit training. In those few days that I was there, there were no alarm bells. All his actions, his disposition, you know, his words were… positive, optimistic, looking forward, driven. I guess that’s why I find it really hard to wrap my head around [his disappearance].”

During his last week in Ibiza, Levi arranged to return to London to do interviews and promote his new record, ‘Los Angeles’. He also posed for swimwear shots at the beach and posted images on the content-sharing website OnlyFans. 

He’d set up an account on 3 October under the handle ‘ManDavis’ and, on 28 October, made his final posts titled: “My first nudes. #takeitback”.

“He was getting financial offers,” said a source. “People wanted to buy his underwear – even his swimming trunks.”


Expecting Repercussions

The #takeitback hashtag Levi used was a reference to the alleged blackmail. In his Instagram video, Levi described being “filmed doing sexual acts after I was drugged, which many would call rape. And by law we would call rape.”

Few in Levi’s circle knew what had been tormenting their friend, and there was immediate alarm at the public posting.

“I think the video will just make your situation worse,” counselled one of his friends. “Putting it on socials [will] just inflame any situation you’re in.”

Another worried that Levi was being “a little brash” and provoking trouble.“It’s okay,” Levi responded in a private WhatsApp group, adding: “I believe I have done what is best for me and I can live or die by that.”

“They have secretly filmed me while I was drugged and now they are trying to make me do things and are threatening to frame me in a variety of schemes they have… I need you guys to share please and get it out there, it’s the only way forward.”

After a day, Levi decided to remove the video, although he sent it to friends for safekeeping.


Barcelona

While outwardly upbeat during his final week on the island, Levi’s mindset was shifting like the seas. Having looked distraught in his Instagram post, he then 

“bounced back completely”, according to close friends, before taking another negative turn 24 hours before he boarded, without prior announcement, a high-speed ferry from the port near Ibiza Old Town to Barcelona on the morning of 29 October 2022.

Mr Squire later told Levi’s friends that Levi, who had 40 Euros on him and was in debt, had “got really upset” shortly before he left and that there had been tension when Squire wouldn’t buy wine for the apartment. The incident was later described to police by one of the people who first reported him missing as heated, although Squire is said to be adamant that there was no big dispute.

Whatever it was, Levi took the decision shortly afterwards to leave the island.  Squire’s account is that he dropped Levi in the Old Town at about 20:30 for a date arranged on Grindr. Levi, Squire later told the Catalan police, had been active on the app while he was in Ibiza and packed a small bag in case he stayed out for the night. It was the last time Squire saw him.

The next contact with Squire was a WhatsApp message from the ferry. “I just wanted to tell you I am on my way to start my business journey in Europe and reconnect with The Lord and find myself,” Levi wrote.

Levi’s mum Julie Davis, a Pentecostal Christian, confirmed to Byline Times that her son had been taking an increasing interest in the church in the months leading up to his disappearance as he sought to make sense of his predicament.

Barcelona-bound: Levi on the ferry from Ibiza in a video he sent his mum © Levi Davis

While on the ferry, Levi recorded a video for her, in which he seemed carefree and relaxed. Panning the camera to a seascape lit by the setting sun, he said: “You can’t tell me that’s not beautiful”.

Levi spoke to Squire again at 19:13 the following day, as he was completing the seven-and-a-half-hour, 149 nautical-mile trip. According to a police statement, Squire said Levi had gone to Barcelona intending to meet someone from Grindr.

Squire says he also told the Mossos that Levi was travelling to have sex with someone for an £800 fee – consistent with Levi’s phrase “business journey” – although this was not recorded by Mossos in the sworn statements seen by this newspaper.

Nor has the identity of the person Levi was said to be meeting ever been established. And, while the Catalan authorities did obtain a judicial order for Grindr to disclose information it holds about the 10 days leading to the disappearance, Byline Times understands that it records no response.

Grindr’s parent company has since told Byline Times that it received no “data requests” using the standard Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) process crime agencies use to share information across international borders. In a statement, Grindr told this newspaper: “Upon receipt of a request through MLAT, we would of course comply.”

This apparently glaring gap in knowledge appears to be one of several arising from a Catalan police investigation that leaves far more questions than it provides answers and which we will be examining in detail later in this series.


“All This is Beautiful”

Taking signposts from his own social media activity, Barcelona police did manage to piece together Levi’s movements over his first three hours in the city. Court papers show his iPhone first connected to an Orange antenna at the city port at 19:43 as he disembarked.

It was warm that Saturday night. Levi shouldered his bag over a white tee shirt, and made the brisk 20-minute walk to the foot of La Rambla. In his skinny jeans and black and white trainers he blended easily among the stag and hen parties bustling along the 1.2km boulevard of bars and restaurants in the heart of the city.

At 21:13, CCTV captured him at The Old Irish Pub, where he watched Liverpool play Leeds at football and bought a £5.25 beer. At 9:30pm, Levi sent Julie Davis a video filmed inside the busy nightspot.

And at 21:44, he messaged his friend, Mike Guida, with another film showing a karaoke competition at the bar. “F**king decent [out],” Levi wrote. “Will bell you when I’m somewhere to sleep bro, have a good night my g.” Mr Guida replied: “Ask to go up and sing ahaha.”

Levi left the Old Irish Pub at 21:46 to walk northwards up La Rambla. His phone connected to Instagram using a Spanish IP address at 21:50 and, at 21:08, he was caught on the internal CCTV at the nearby Hard Rock Café.

Rarity: This CCTV image of Levi was captured in the HardRock Cafe on Las Ramblas the night he went missing. The coverage is partially obscured by Halloween cobweb decorations © HardRock Cafe


At 21:22, Levi left a breezy voicemail to Mike Guida. At 21:26, he spent £9 on a drink, before messaging his mum at 22:46 and asking her for £30. He finally left the bar, having briefly nipped out and then back in, at 22:53.

At 23:04, Levi checked his WhatsApp and an hour later left Mike Guida a final message, saying: “All this is beautiful. It’s f**king incredible. I am taking all my inspo [inspiration]. F**k I love it.”

And then, at 12 minutes past midnight, Levi’s phone made a final cell-tower connection – only now it was all the way back at the port, opposite the covered terrace of the cruise terminal on Moll Adossat wharf.

The Spanish authorities have not established why Levi would have retraced his steps. No further sightings were found on the public camera network and his phone and bag were never found. So what happened?

The key to unlocking this mystery may lie in the strange circumstances surrounding the discovery of Levi’s passport, three weeks later .

Our dossier of evidence is available to the police

Next in this series – out tomorrrow: “Sextortion and OnlyFans – Was The On Demand Content King Used in Levi Davis Blackmail Plot?”



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