Horrifying new twist behind Towie star Jordan Wright’s death. He was last seen sprinting in terror before being found a ditch. Now FRED KELLY’S forensic investigation into his final hours tells who he was running from…

It looked like he was running for his life. In blurry CCTV footage recorded on the evening of March 12, reality TV star Jordan Wright can be seen racing down a quiet road on the Thai island of Phuket before taking a despairing look over her shoulder, turning left and disappearing into the darkness.

Moments later, a second camera a few hundred meters away records audio of the 33-year-old man’s conversation on his cell phone. Wright seems to be saying, ‘Before they come back, let’s get them back in their heads and get into a gunfight.’

He was found dead in the same place two days later, lying face down in a sewer drain.

Last week, I retraced Wright’s final steps on the infamous party island in an attempt to unravel the mystery of his untimely death.

Given Wright’s clearly disturbed state before his death, rumors circulated that he may have been a victim of the island’s thriving drink and drug culture.

After all, Phuket is the pinnacle of the hedonistic local party scene, attracting hundreds of thousands of revelers every year, many of whom are lured by the dissolute excitement of the monthly Full Moon Parties. As an acquaintance of Wright’s in Phuket put it: ‘This is an island that could tear you apart. Heat. Party. He might catch you.’

However, today the Daily Mail offers a second and actually much more disturbing explanation; Wright’s roommate revealed that he suffered ‘periods of mental paranoia and psychosis’ while on the island; It was part of a crisis dating back to his time on ITV’s The Only Way Is Essex in 2018.

But first, let’s start with the facts of the night Jordan Wright disappeared. We know that at 23.25 on Thursday, March 12, he turned left from the COCO Bang Tao Beach Hotel in the northwest of the island, where he was staying. He crossed a parking lot just big enough for half a dozen cars and followed a gentle incline into a vacant lot roughly the size of a football field, littered with rocks and trash, with abandoned metal construction bars sticking out of the ground like tombstones. This is an uncomfortable place to visit during the day; We cannot even imagine passing here in the dead of night.

Fred Kelly retraced Wright’s final steps on the infamous party island in a bid to unravel the mystery of his untimely death

Contrary to previous reports, I can say that Wright then made another left turn, avoiding a dead end to the right, and landed himself in a second field with a steep 10-foot drop. At the corner of this similarly neglected spot is a drainage ditch filled with stagnant water and surrounded by high concrete walls.

As explained, a nearby CCTV camera, apparently attached to the Title Legendary Bang Tao hotel bordering the moat, captures the voice of Wright angrily shouting into his iPhone 17, which was later found by police next to the moat. It is not clear who Wright was talking to, to whom the ‘let’s put them back in their heads’ was directed, and what ‘conflict’ he wanted to happen in his uneasy state.

But these vital details clearly raise the question of whether Wright was involved with the wrong people.

Thai police insist that there was no evidence that Wright was being followed the night he died, nor that his body showed any signs of physical fighting. The autopsy is ongoing at Vachira Hospital on the island, and there is no indication when or if the results will be released.

However, due to the sudden nature of the death, it is likely that a second autopsy will be carried out as part of the forensic investigation in the UK. Wright’s family has yet to comment.

Everyone agrees that this was a tragic end to a young life that showed significant promise. Wright’s time in the spotlight began in 2016, when he was just 23, when he dated Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison, who was convicted of assault for throwing a high-heeled shoe at a nightclub reveler three years earlier. He later claimed that his victim approached him with ice cubes.

The relationship ended in 2017 when Wright appeared on MTV’s Ex On The Beach, and the following year she rose to reality TV stardom as a series regular on ITV’s The Only Way is Essex. Although not related to the iconic Wright family who dominated Towie for many years, the well-groomed Jordan quickly became a fan favorite due to his good looks, gym-ready physique and compelling flirtatious relationship with cast member Courtney Green; this relationship resulted in a violent on-screen fight with Green’s ex-boyfriend Myles Barnett.

But then again, in 2018 the boy from Basildon, Essex, suffered a dramatic fallout when he left Towie and, after 17 episodes, it was revealed he had taken sabbatical from his job as a firefighter with the London Fire Brigade to pursue his TV passions.

He duly returned to the fire service, but continued to work as a DJ and personal trainer in his spare time. However, last year Wright had had enough and on December 3, he emigrated to Phuket for a ‘fresh start’.

From the outside, it looked like the move was off to a good start. On December 10, Wright shared his first post from the island on Instagram; standing next to Phuket’s iconic Big Buddha statue with two new flatmates (British expat Joey Jeffrey and someone called simply Dino) accompanied by the caption: ‘We have such an exciting year ahead’ and a smiley face emoji.

As police investigate the reality star’s mysterious death, mysterious CCTV footage has emerged of her running down a quiet road.

Speaking to the Daily Mail last week, Joey revealed that Wright came to Phuket ‘to better himself’ and then spent a lot of time taking martial arts lessons. ‘We would do fight stuff, go to the gym, ride motorcycles together,’ said Joey. ‘Jordan was a lovely and nice man. Great speaking skills.’

Wright worked every day as a fund manager, helping deposit clients’ money and, according to Joey, ‘always showed up for Zoom calls in a suit and tie. He was very smart, very intellectual. A fine English gentleman and a businessman.’

Wright is understood to have entered Thailand on a Thailand Destination Visa (DTV), which operates similarly to ‘digital nomad visas’ in other parts of the world for remote workers. For a cost of just around £228, DTV grants Thai residents tax-free residence status, provided – among other conditions – that they do not work for a Thai company. Phuket alone is home to more than 100,000 expats from around the world, including large numbers of Russians and Ukrainians who relocated following the outbreak of war.

But even though Jordan seemed to be successful in his new life, everything was about to go horribly wrong. In early March, he decided to book a hotel room in the north of the island, near the famous Bang Tao Beach, home to some of Phuket’s biggest and loudest nightclubs.

According to Joey, he went there ‘to see a girl’, but it’s unclear who the girl is and there’s nothing on the star’s social media suggesting he’s in a relationship.

He then met his untimely end on March 12, one day before Jordan was due to check out of COCO Bang Tao Beach Hotel.

“I was the first one to find out about it and it was such a shock,” said Joey. ‘We had to go through a lot of questions and emotions. Many different scenarios. ‘There was misinformation floating around.’

Joey paused and made up his mind: ‘People say he ran away. But there was an underlying problem. He wasn’t running from anyone but himself. He had bad mental health issues. ‘He was suffering from periods of paranoia and psychosis.’

Seeing further unreleased police documents, Joey believes that Jordan’s mental health took a turn that fateful night, and that his deterioration in health led him to fall into the flooded drainage ditch, making his death nothing more than a tragic accident.

Joey revealed that following the news of Wright’s death, he received a number of calls from people in Britain saying they were worried about Wright when he went to Thailand and had previously had concerns about his mental health.

‘I don’t know how this came about or what triggered it,’ explained Joey. ‘But the truth was he was in a mentally unstable place. That’s why he came here to fix himself in the first place.

‘There was no alcohol or drugs in the house. We lived a healthy lifestyle,’ concluded Joey. ‘People said he had a ‘drug problem’. Actually it wasn’t. These were all internal problems. Men need to have these conversations [about mental health] Before it’s too late.”

While it’s unclear what first led to Wright’s mental health crisis, there’s a strong case that it could have been due to his television career.

Wright explained on reality shows in 2023: ‘People think it’s all glitz and glamor, but the reality is far from the public’s perception. I tried really hard. ‘I lost so much of myself and my sense of purpose when I left.’

Housemate and British expat Joey Jeffrey said Wright ‘never liked being introduced from Towie onwards’, adding: ‘That show must be a bit stressful on everyone.’

CCTV showed Wright running down the road and looking desperately over his shoulder, before turning left and disappearing into the darkness.

“He didn’t like being introduced to Towie at all,” admitted Joey. ‘This show must be causing some stress on everyone. But it was difficult to talk to him about this every day. ‘He was a closed book.’

A spokesman for the reality show said: ‘Everyone at Towie extends their deepest condolences to Jordan Wright’s family and friends at this very sad time.’

No doubt, rumors will continue to circulate about the exact cause of death until the full autopsy and toxicology report is released. But no matter what happened on the night of March 12, it’s clear from Joey’s statement that Jordan was not okay.

In his latest Instagram post from England on October 17 last year, Wright paid tribute to the Freemasons, whose father was also a member, saying: ‘In a society where many young men feel disconnected and lacking community, the teachings of Freemasonry provide a bastion of strong morals, traditional virtues and true brotherhood.’

I wish someone close to him had known how disconnected or lost he felt at the time.

According to Joey, Jordan’s body will be returned to the UK in the coming weeks at a cost of up to £40,000. ‘It must be terrible for his parents to go through this. I am also a father. I told Jordan’s father to let me know if he needed anything.’

However, while Jordan’s body will be repatriated, his flatmate Joey will remain in Phuket, where he will manage the Grafters. This is a company that offers retreats for young men seeking mental and physical rejuvenation or ‘Wellness’. Presence. Its slogan reads ‘Brotherhood’.

The next retreat starts tomorrow. But as he welcomes attendees, Joey Jeffrey promises to make one thing clear: We’re dedicating the next ten days to someone who needs to be there.