Found Deceased Australia - Gary Tweddle, 23, Blue Mountains NSW, 16 July 2013 - #3

[Derryn Hunch]

SouthAussie - I believe that what you're looking at in the pic you've attached above is actually the terrain that the police recovery team had to traverse in order to get to the top of that ledge - which further drives home the question - just how the hell did Gary get down there at all!?!?

 

[Lexis]

It’s a worry, isn’t it? Have they all come to their end through misadventure too? :facepalm:

I’m glad a NSW coroner has raised the subject of great concern over people who have gone missing in the area. Only thing is, we don’t actually know if anything is being done about it. Is there a bit of a 'we can't do much about it' attitude?

Makes me wonder if anyone will ever know the truth behind Gary’s demise, or if it will just be listed as an assumed accident due to the lack of any other firm indicators.

....might need to go back to my grandfather's day when the police harnessed his skills of a dowser...... excellent, he was, at finding missing people (and water for farmers) .......... such skills (or gifts) seem forgotten these days.

 

[FigTree]

Just for reference I've circled the ledge Gary was found on from the above pics attached here..

Thanks MaYHeM - trying to overlay Fortunates photo onto my photo to get the spot.

I think the other photo may have been taken earlier in the morning - I noticed in another photo there were Police and detectives along the cliff top but not where Gary was located below.

 

[Derryn Hunch]

I may be wrong, slightly off the mark - but I've circled where I think the recovery team are in the pic you've re-posted SouthAussie, in relation to where gary was found... massively steep terrain to get there...

 

[SouthAussie]

I may be wrong, slightly off the mark - but I've circled where I think the recovery team are in the pic you've re-posted SouthAussie, in relation to where gary was found... massively steep terrain to get there...

That makes a lot more sense ... bloody media and their assumptions that those police were standing on THE ledge!


THANK YOU everyone .. it is all much clearer now.

 

[Lexis]

Just for reference I've circled the ledge Gary was found on from the above pics attached here..

Thanks Mayhem, that makes it easier.

Would the most direct route to that spot be if one went off the end of West St into bush?

 

[SouthAussie]

It sure doesn't seem that Gary would have fallen/rolled/jumped down that slope to reach that part of the cliff. Far too many obstacles and ledges along the way.

 

[Derryn Hunch]

And... seeing I'm drawing colored circles with MS paint, might as well add one in where I think there is a fair chance Gary's iPhone is, if it hasn't been recovered elsewhere...

 

[Derryn Hunch]

Thanks Mayhem, that makes it easier.

Would the most direct route to that spot be if one went off the end of West St into bush?

As I posted in thread #2 (will link) - it appears that the most likely path would be down West St then about 120m into the bush, bearing left. (will need to look at a topographical map)

 

[SouthAussie]

And... seeing I'm drawing colored circles with MS paint, might as well add one in where I think there is a fair chance Gary's iPhone is, if it hasn't been recovered elsewhere...

If the phone is in that area, that would mean to me that he didn't fall till 3am or later. I really don't think that the phone could ping the tower all the way behind Sublime Point on another hill through that thick bedrock.

 

[Derryn Hunch]

Speaking of which - can anyone find a detailed topographical map of that area??? (showing contour lines)

Seems this is the map 8930-1S KATOOMBA

 

[Lexis]

... massively steep terrain to get there...

Maybe my assumption about the gradient of the slope being similar to where I live, is off the mark but it doesn't look like it would be all that difficult to walk down and I don't recall the recovery team having too much trouble.

Plenty of trees to grab hold of too and I think it would be ok in terms of density, via foot.(IMO).

 

[fruity]

Wow, many undiscovered bodies!

That suggests to me that the dogs are not equipped to do their job in the Blue Mountains or if they are equipped then they are not being employed on the searches....... please correct me if I'm wrong.

There are a few areas known to police that there are many undiscovered bodies. Whether those people have decided to disappear there (suicide), have accidentally died there or have been deliberately dumped there, the areas are too vast for the dogs to be used for what is essentially searching for a needle in a haystack.

I'd really recommend reading the article that was linked earlier. It was very interesting.

 

[Derryn Hunch]

If the phone is in that area, that would mean to me that he didn't fall till 3am or later. I really don't think that the phone could ping the tower all the way behind Sublime Point on another hill through that thick bedrock.

I actually think (unless someone can show cause as to otherwise) there is a pretty good chance that if that phone was somewhere along that ledge (not at the bottom of the cliff) - then it might be able to ping a signal until it went flat. The only way to know would be rope up and hang off the cliff with an iphone with an identical case (if he had one on it) and network provider... and see where it went dead...

Again though - incomplete information provided on this issue means we don't know for sure that the phone really did ping the tower and to what extent etc...

 

[fruity]

Mayhem thanks for those photos, it makes it a lot clearer!

 

[SouthAussie]

Speaking of which - can anyone find a detailed topographical map of that area??? (showing contour lines)

This site has some topographical maps of the area (in the PDF files to the right, at the bottom of each file) but they don't look that great. Looking for something better ...

http://www.wildwalks.com/bushwalking-and-hiking-in-nsw/blue-mountains-leura/

 

[Lexis]

There are a few areas known to police that there are many undiscovered bodies. Whether those people have decided to disappear there (suicide), have accidentally died there or have been deliberately dumped there, the areas are too vast for the dogs to be used for what is essentially searching for a needle in a haystack.

I'd really recommend reading the article that was linked earlier. It was very interesting.

Yes, very interesting article indeed.

I wonder how they know that undiscovered bodies are in those vast areas. Perhaps dogs led search teams to the doorstep of those vast areas.

 

[SouthAussie]

I actually think (unless someone can show cause as to otherwise) there is a pretty good chance that if that phone was somewhere along that ledge (not at the bottom of the cliff) - then it might be able to ping a signal until it went flat. The only way to know would be rope up and hang off the cliff with an iphone with an identical case (if he had one on it) and network provider... and see where it went dead...

Again though - incomplete information provided on this issue means we don't know for sure that the phone really did ping the tower and to what extent etc...

This is an area I know quite a bit about (for once!) and unless there is a signal bouncing into that area .. perhaps off the cliffs opposite, but doubtful due to angles .. I truly don't believe there would be a signal on that ledge.

Going by reports, it did ping till 3am-ish. And I personally believe there could have been other phone activity as late as 2am.

 

[Xantara]

I am just bringing across 2 of Fortunate's photos from Discussion Thread #2 - they show the extraordinary effort of the Police Rescue to bring Gary to the top of the cliff.

This is a wider shot of the cliff face - you can see the definite ledges the rock formation has - this is the same afternoon.

Amazing photos! So, is that little ledge with that bit of bush growing on it - in the middle of the first photo and in the lower middle of the second photo - where Gary lay?

 

[SouthAussie]

Amazing photos! So, is that little ledge with that bit of bush growing on it - in the middle of the first photo and in the lower middle of the second photo - where Gary lay?

Don't know .. we think it is the little ledge near the top in the third picture (according to MaYHeM's circled picture above) ... too hard to tell in the 1st and 2nd photos which ledge it is .. unless MaYHeM wants to hazard a guess.

Looks like a pretty shallow ledge. Miracle he landed there. Miracle they spotted him.