That's a hell of a walk, I reckon enough to sober someone up ! He would have had to leave the country lane to disappear into Ampton Water but as you say it is possible. Maybe we will hear the results of any search there soon.
Yes there are but those rivers aren't in the town centre where he went missing. Not that far away so I guess it depends on where he was headed but presuming (speculating) that he was looking for a taxi I'm not sure he would have needed to go near the river. Hopefully it all turns out ok...
Last seen on CCTV wandering drunkenly through Bury St Edmunds in the middle of the night. It doesn't seem like much of a plan if AWOL and I don't think anybody would deliberately put their family through this worry. I live near Bury and a night out there is about as safe as you can get anywhere...
So am I and the lack of coverage does lend itself to the possibility of kidnap. It's a real worry up here as we have a lot of service families and bases.