Urgent hunt for mystery Las Vegas driver as British Paralympian Sam Ruddock vanishes

Friends of missing Sam Ruddock are desperately trying to hunt down a mystery man who was last seen with the Brit.

Before his disappearance, the 35-year-old, who has represented in shot put, cycling and sprinting, posted several videos of himself in Sin City to his . But during one ten-minute clip, it shows him being driven towards the famous Las Vegas Strip. Sam is seen chatting to “Steve” as he tells him about his stay in the States and how he arrived in the US to attend WrestleMania.

However, friends were aware that the London Paralympics star did not have a ticket or much money. Hours later, on the 16th of April, after the video was uploaded, all contact with Sam stopped, and no one has heard from him since. His phone is no longer receiving messages.

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Close friend Lucy Earl has started a campaign to find Sam, as police in Las Vegas and Lincoln, where his mother lives, have opened a case. Speaking to the , she told me how she had frantically contacted hostels, hotels, , US police, and even US immigration in her bid to locate the athlete.

Lucy said: “We were receiving messages from Sam from when he landed from the 13th to 16th, but then no one heard anything from Sam since then. He posted several videos of himself in Vegas, and one shows him being driven by a guy called ‘Steve’ in an Austin Healey convertible. We are trying to locate who that Steve was in that car, as he may know something that can help.”

It appears Sam may have hitched a ride with ‘Steve’. As the American drives the two chat about where Sam should be dropped off - eventually settling on the famous Pawn Shop, home to the US reality TV show Pawn Stars. The athlete initially says he wanted to get to Fremont - presumably Fremont Street, the city's second most-famous strip after the Las Vegas Strip itself.

However, the driver explains he can’t take him that far and instead leaves him at the Pawn Shop, offering advice along the way about local friends and contacts the sportsman should meet while in town. Lucy told how she has since spoken with the Bungalow Hostel, where Sam was staying with staff, saying he checked in on the 14th.

She added: “He was supposed to check out on the 15th, but he's never checked out. All of his belongings are still there, and they're keeping them safe. I don't even know at this point if Sam’s got his passport on him.”

Lucy said her concerns for Sam, who has been close to her for the past ten years, were raised when he stopped messaging her. “He texts every day,” she said. “He's one of those lovely people that you wake up and you go, ‘oh my goodness, 30 Instagram stories’.

He flew out to Vegas to watch WrestleMania. He never had a ticket. I told him, ‘You know you haven’t got a ticket? And he said, ‘No, I'm hopefully going to have enough money.’ So I've got a really bad feeling that something's happened.”

Lucy said that before Sam’s disappearance, she received some “nonsensical” messages from him. She explained: “He turned around and said, “You know, you're my, you know, my guardian angel. I love you’ and that's not like him. “Some of his messages were about the Matrix and saying leading on God's path, following the third eye. So I think some things were quite nonsensical.

"In complete honesty, he wasn’t in an oppressive state; he was more in a manic state, on cloud nine and especially mixed in with WrestleMania. He had a lot of excitement. He didn’t have a ticket but but I don't believe he would’ve gotten one. I don't think he would have had the funds to do it.”

Anyone with information about Sam’s whereabouts is asked to contact or the Las Vegas Police Department. Contact details for the search are 07951 302953 or Lincolnshire Police 101 quoting incident number 0169-25.04.25

• The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK via a live interactive map, in collaboration with . Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.