CHILLING UPDATE: Daniel Carter, the brother of a Team GB star, was found dead in a river after reportedly jumping from a taxi on a motorway during a night ou
Luis Piovesana, 26, the younger brother of Olympic judo star Lubjana Piovesana, was found dead in a Bristol river after a night out that ended in terror, confusion and tragedy.
An inquest has now heard the final, harrowing details of how the popular quality engineer vanished in the early hours after fleeing a taxi on a motorway, leaving behind a trail of distressed phone calls, discarded belongings and chilling CCTV footage of his last known movements.
Luis, born in Sutton Coldfield and living in Frenchay, Bristol, with his partner, had spent the evening of 27 February 2025 with friends. They had dinner, drinks and visited The Jam Jar music venue in St Anne’s. He had consumed alcohol and magic mushrooms both before and during the night. Friends later said he became increasingly agitated as the early hours approached.
At 2.55am he ordered an Uber to take him home. Just four minutes later, at 2.59am, he rang his girlfriend and left a distressed voicemail. In it he claimed the taxi driver was “trying to kidnap him” and could be heard screaming for help, begging to be let out of the car.
At 3.03am he dialled 999. He told the operator he had been drugged and was on the motorway. Around the same time a motorist reported seeing a pedestrian walking in one of the motorway lanes. Police arrived at 3.19am but could not locate him.
Detective Inspector Peter Walker told Avon Coroners’ Court that the taxi driver informed officers he had let Luis out near a motorway slipway. CCTV cameras then picked up the 26-year-old at Eastgate retail park. Officers pieced together 12 minutes of footage showing his movements. DI Walker described them as “erratic” and said it was “clear that Luis was intoxicated.” Crucially, he told the hearing there was “nobody else about” during that time.
The last confirmed sighting was at 3.24am. Luis was captured approximately 450 metres from the sluice gates on the River Frome – the same stretch of water where his body would later be recovered. His phone, wallet and bag were found discarded at the retail park. CCTV showed he had left them there himself.
His partner reported him missing at 7.37am. A massive search followed. More than 100 officers were involved at points, alongside friends, relatives, mounted teams and drones. Lubjana Piovesana, known as Lulu, flew to the UK from Austria to join the desperate hunt for her little brother. The family and friends combed the area while police concentrated efforts around the River Frome near Eastgate.
On the evening of 3 March 2025, police divers searching the river near Napier Road in Eastville located a body. Formal identification confirmed it was Luis. He had been missing for three days. A post-mortem examination determined the cause of death was immersion in water. Psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms) and ethanol were also recorded in his system.
Area Coroner for Avon, Dr Peter Harrowing, delivered a narrative conclusion at the inquest. He said: “Luis Piovesana died following immersion in water after entering the River Frome in Bristol some time between February 28 and March 3 2025. How he came to the water has not been established.”
There was no evidence of third-party involvement. DI Walker confirmed that extensive inquiries had ruled out any suggestion that anyone else was with Luis in those final minutes captured on camera.
Luis’s sister Lubjana, who competed for Team GB before representing Austria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was devastated. In the days after the discovery she posted: “Luis has been found. We are completely devastated, but he has passed away. I am grateful for everyone’s support. I am so sorry this has happened. Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
A family statement read to the inquest painted a picture of a young man deeply loved. “Luis had a strong, close relationship with his family including an extensive extended family. We last saw him three weeks before his passing, during his sister’s graduation party. He also had large friendship groups in both Bristol and Birmingham. At his funeral, over 500 people attended – a testament to the deep connections he had built.”
Luis had moved to Bristol in September 2024. He held a master’s degree in engineering and worked as a quality engineer. Friends and family remembered him as sociable, friendly and a “gift to everyone in his life.”
The inquest heard that despite the huge search operation, Luis could not be found until the divers located him near the sluice gates. It remains impossible to establish exactly where or when he entered the water.
CCTV of those final minutes has been described in court as showing a young man alone, intoxicated and moving in an erratic fashion through the quiet retail park in the dead of night. The footage ends with him still on foot, hundreds of metres from the river that would claim his life. No other person appears on the recordings during that critical window.
The tragedy has left a family and hundreds of friends mourning a young man whose final hours were marked by fear and confusion. From the distressed voicemail accusing a taxi driver of kidnap, to the 999 call claiming he had been drugged, to the solitary figure captured on camera discarding his belongings and walking into the darkness, the sequence has been reconstructed in painful detail.
Yet the coroner was clear: how Luis came to enter the River Frome has not been established. The evidence points to a night of alcohol and magic mushrooms, rising agitation, a panicked exit from a taxi on the motorway, and a solitary, intoxicated walk through the early morning streets of Bristol that ended in the cold water of the Frome.
Lubjana and the wider family have asked that people refrain from speculation. They have confirmed their belief that Luis did not take his own life. Their focus has remained on remembering the brother, son and friend who was loved by so many.
Luis Piovesana was 26. He had a master’s degree, a partner, close family ties and a wide circle of friends in two cities. He had been out for a normal night that turned into something far darker. The CCTV that captured his last moments shows a young man alone in the night, moving erratically, minutes from the river that would become his final resting place until divers found him three days later.
The inquest has now closed the official chapter. For those who loved him, the questions and the grief remain. A Team GB star’s brother, a popular engineer, a much-loved son and sibling – gone after a night out that ended in a river in Bristol.
The final images on CCTV, the voicemail, the 999 call and the discarded belongings form the last known record of Luis Piovesana’s life. Everything after that is the silent stretch of water where he was eventually found.
