Hi Jake. Dan sounds like a great guy and I'm sorry for what you must be going through.
I have a few (or a lot) questions but feel free not to answer any/all of them if you don't want to:
He got the train from Plymouth to St Erth and he had a return ticket. Was the return ticket from the same stations (St Erth to Plymouth)? Was it a day return, an open return or a return on a specified date?
Where and when did he buy the ticket? At the station just before getting the train or at some point beforehand?
Did Dan do a lot of walking? Not specifically hillwalking or coastal path type walking, just walking to town and such like? Trying to get an idea of how far he might plan to walk in a day. From St Erth station to Porthmeor Hill is around 5 miles - and a bit further if he included the loop around St Ives Head.
Also to note he covered those 5 miles in 1hr20 which is a fairly quick pace - feels like someone walking with purpose rather than an aimless stroll.
Last known sighting was at 1:28pm on Porthmeor Hill and the last ping from his phone was around 6:30pm in roughly the same location. Do we know if there were frequent phone pings during this time and 6:30 was just the last one (eg he stayed in the same area for that time) or if there was nothing before that final ping (so he could have walked some distance along the coastal path and been returning through St Ives when the phone pinged again)?
I think I read somewhere that he had taken shower gel and/or deodorant with him (but I can't find that link now)? Is that correct? Do you know if he also had a change of clothes with him?
Hello, Dan is a great guy, without him I wouldn't be half the person I am now. I'm happy to answer the questions
As far as we know the return ticket was from St Erth back to Plymouth but it has not been used at all. With the shower gel, that's just based on what's missing from his room, same as the charger (we live together so I was able to inventory his room fairly quickly). We don't know if he had any clothes with him, the bag he had wasn't that big but it is possible that he had extra clothes with him but ultimately, we don't know
In terms of walking, he'd usually walk around the block or a few streets over, only going any sort of distance if he was going shops. He does it daily for exercise after he finishes work around 4.30/5pm usually. He's generally an introvert so doesn't really stray far. With regards to the speed, it could be because he had a purpose but he has always been a ridiculously fast walker so him covering that distance in a short time doesn't surprise in the least. I think he had a destination in mind as he's always calculated in what he does but I will say that's speculation based on his normal behaviour on my part so please don't take that as gospel!
His phone was active all the time until 6.40pm on 08/12 however he wasn't calling or texting anyone, it was just connected to the mast. The mast itself is in Camborne but with Cornwall being largely rural there's only a limited number of masts to connect to so it doesn't help us in terms of location as masts can hold a signal over large distances (sometimes up to about 40 miles depending on topography). So the ping didn't really give us a location, just an extremely large radius as to where he could be or have been. St Ives has been the focal point just because there's been no evidence leading anywhere else at present.
Hopefully I've not missed anything! As I've said before, I'm happy to answer any questions because ultimately my goal is to bring Dan home, whether that's him alive or not I don't know, but people on the outside looking at things are likely to be less biased than myself or my mum and may think of ideas that we haven't thought of previously so we're trying to be an open book
I've said it a few times in other replies but in all sincerity, thank you for showing an interest in his case, anyone who talks about him or spreads his name is a hero in our books so thank you
