Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020 #4

[Zoomy]

Esther Dingley’s lover denies having anything to do with her disappearance

In todays Sun, an interview with DC.

 

[Grouse]

I’d be curious as to how many video surveillance cams there are in Benasque. I realise they’re not as ubiquitous as in the UK, but still. We already know there’s one in the Eroski supermarket, and then there are two gas stations, three banks, at least four hotels......So I have to wonder if they’ve proven to be of any help to LE.

I pondered on that as well. One time when I was on the Daily Mail Online website an advert popped up saying "We pay cash for videos". So I suspected then that's how they got the one from the Eroski store that is just down the road from where the campervan was parked.

On that basis I wouldn't be surprised if they did a bit of a campaign in the town to get local businesses to come forward with cctv footage. The fact that there weren't more any cctv based articles in the DM after made me think either there wasn't any more footage found, or that LE have commandeered it.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Esther Dingley’s lover denies having anything to do with her disappearance

In todays Sun, an interview with DC.

Poor Dan, can't begin to imagine

 

[Grouse]

Poor Dan, can't begin to imagine

I wonder if he's been reading this thread - ''Unfortunately now I think people look at the things she's shared in the past in the context of Esther's disappearance and read too much into it, perhaps projecting some of their own life experiences. It's easy to get the wrong impression.''

 

[Zoomy]

Esther Dingley’s lover denies having anything to do with her disappearance

In todays Sun, an interview with DC.

I wonder if he's been reading this thread - ''Unfortunately now I think people look at the things she's shared in the past in the context of Esther's disappearance and read too much into it, perhaps projecting some of their own life experiences. It's easy to get the wrong impression.''

Yes, I most certainly think he's been reading this thread, I thought that some of the info in the dossier seemed to be answering some of the posts on here. Must be awful when he reads something that he knows is incorrect and derogatory to Esther, though I'm not criticizing anyone on here. (apart from the vile onlinesleuth memeber who was thankfully removed!)

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I wonder if he's been reading this thread - ''Unfortunately now I think people look at the things she's shared in the past in the context of Esther's disappearance and read too much into it, perhaps projecting some of their own life experiences. It's easy to get the wrong impression.''

I feel sorry if he’s had to read some of the more negative and unkind assumptions on here.

 

[RickshawFan]

TBH in the UK neither "backcountry" and "wilderness" are terms you tend to hear, it's too small and crowded for that as you probably know (with some exceptions in parts of Wales and of course Scotland). But still can be dangerous. 5 years ago I set out on a hike in the Lake District on my own. I had given my wife some details of where I was going ( probably not in enough detail in hindsight). I parked the car in a grass clearing and set off, and about 100 yards from the car I fell into a hidden ditch and badly injured my ankle (permanently - I now have "osteochondrial lesion and delamination" and it still flares up). I managed to drive back to town before the swelling got too bad, but I keep thinking how it could have turned out when I was up there on the hills. It was quite a remote route I had chosen, not one of the popular ones as I do like lonely places, so quite possibly there would have been no one around and likely no mobile signal.

When I think of wilderness in the US it's those massive forests around Maine that come to mind. Partly because of reading the very sad Geraldine Largay case and also after reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (I'm a Stephen King fan).

Glad you're okay. Yes, the Lake District was exactly the kind of place I was thinking about as "backcountry". Same with the northwest 1/4 of Wales. Heck, I could go walking in the Brecon Beacons or in the heights of Derbyshire or the Long Mynd. You can easily get into "weather", slip or whatever, and be a long way from help. Supplies and kit are important there, too.
Yes, Geraldine Largay got lost in the 100-mile Wilderness, one of the few more or less inaccessible stretches on the AT. A lot of Maine can get wild like that. However, almost all of Maine has also been stripped of forest at one point not long ago, so you get miles and miles and miles of what I call "junk forest". An older forest would have much more room to navigate in the understory, but also would not look like a tree plantation (as some great swathes of "wilderness" look like further south). I was shocked on the AT how little real wilderness there is in the eastern US.

 

[ZaZara]

Esther Dingley’s lover denies having anything to do with her disappearance

In todays Sun, an interview with DC.

Calling him 'lover'....yuck.

What is wrong with partner?

 

[RickshawFan]

We learn everything on this thread, including new vocabulary. Just don't use it at the office...

I made the word up, lol. Without the constraints of TOS, I think I'd have made it grosser and funnier, but that's the best I can do.

 

[RickshawFan]

We ain’t got space for wilderness, except perhaps in the highlands of Scotland. Even in England’s most remote areas you could barely go a mile without seeing signs of life - a vehicle, building or actual person. Esther was also only a mile or two from “life” in any direction.

Y'all are making me want to go to England and do some walking on the moors.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Calling him 'lover'....yuck.

What is wrong with partner?

Yeah, that’s pretty awful. If he’s genuinely trusted them with an interview he’ll be dismayed by that. Rude! And clickbaity

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Esther Dingley’s lover denies having anything to do with her disappearance

In todays Sun, an interview with DC.

Yes, I most certainly think he's been reading this thread, I thought that some of the info in the dossier seemed to be answering some of the posts on here. Must be awful when he reads something that he knows is incorrect and derogatory to Esther, though I'm not criticizing anyone on here. (apart from the vile onlinesleuth memeber who was thankfully removed!)

I think he had read this thread too.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Y'all are making me want to go to England and do some walking on the moors.

It's making me remember my trip to Maine.

Small world really (well, before you know what)

 

[otto]

Quiet but not deserted. France was in lockdown, Spain wasn't and we have no evidence she ever made it to France. There were people around. The skier and his girlfriend for a start, and I think they said something about most people were coming down at that time of day, implying others had been up there , thought I can't find the quote to back that up right now. On the 19th there was mystery hiker and also another person seen in ED's IG photos. There was the girl ED hiked with. DC reported hunters so that's more people around. So IMO there were enough people who were still around on those peaks in that period before the weather turned a few days later, certainly on the Spanish side. Enough I would say to attract a potential predator, but with it still being quiet enough to present opportunity.

No one else was climbing the mountain that day, and the report gives the impression that no one was behind them descending the mountain. That means the mountain was essentially deserted when Esther was hiking to the summit on Nov 22.

We cannot assume that all sorts of other people were there that day.

"Mr Vigo del Arco told La Vanguardia newspaper that he had met an English woman at around 3pm on November 22 - the same day that Esther went missing on her long solo trek in the mountains.

He said: “She was coming up, we were on the descent, she was very heavily loaded with a very big backpack.”

The pair then stopped for a conversation with the woman.

Mr Vigo del Arco added: “She asked us if we had a piece of fruit or something fresh, but we didn’t have anything.

“She carried on up.”

The couple did not see anyone else coming up the mountain - and are believed to have been the last people to see Dingley."
​

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13395949/missing-hiker-esther-dingley-olympic-skier/

 

[Grouse]

Glad you're okay. Yes, the Lake District was exactly the kind of place I was thinking about as "backcountry". Same with the northwest 1/4 of Wales. Heck, I could go walking in the Brecon Beacons or in the heights of Derbyshire or the Long Mynd. You can easily get into "weather", slip or whatever, and be a long way from help. Supplies and kit are important there, too.
Yes, Geraldine Largay got lost in the 100-mile Wilderness, one of the few more or less inaccessible stretches on the AT. A lot of Maine can get wild like that. However, almost all of Maine has also been stripped of forest at one point not long ago, so you get miles and miles and miles of what I call "junk forest". An older forest would have much more room to navigate in the understory, but also would not look like a tree plantation (as some great swathes of "wilderness" look like further south). I was shocked on the AT how little real wilderness there is in the eastern US.

Thanks, yes OK with the ankle it's managable. The Brecon Beacons are great (I did Pen Y Fan and then down via Cribyn and it was glorious but gets really misty), but a bit further North in mid Wales it gets much more remote - this is a great book about a guy who lived off grid there for years https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Country-Years-Welsh-Hills/dp/0141049324

Shame what you say about Maine forests being stripped, guess I'd built up an idealised picture in my mind. If I ever get to the US again certainly a place I'd love to visit.

 

[Grouse]

No one else was climbing the mountain that day, and the report gives the impression that no one was behind them descending the mountain. That means the mountain was essentially deserted when Esther was hiking to the summit on Nov 22.

We cannot assume that all sorts of other people were there that day.

"Mr Vigo del Arco told La Vanguardia newspaper that he had met an English woman at around 3pm on November 22 - the same day that Esther went missing on her long solo trek in the mountains.

He said: “She was coming up, we were on the descent, she was very heavily loaded with a very big backpack.”

The pair then stopped for a conversation with the woman.

Mr Vigo del Arco added: “She asked us if we had a piece of fruit or something fresh, but we didn’t have anything.

“She carried on up.”

The couple did not see anyone else coming up the mountain - and are believed to have been the last people to see Dingley."
​

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13395949/missing-hiker-esther-dingley-olympic-skier/

Ok, you're focussing on the specifics of that particular day there Otto, and you may be right! I thought I read something that implied more hikers around that day (paraphrasing but something about "everyone else was on their way down"?) but I can't substantiate it.

But I was also thinking in wider terms of the days leading up to it, and just making the point that in general there were still a fair few people out and about hiking the hills and it was not as quiet as might be thought. Also we can't take it for granted that no one was ascending from the French side (lockdown or not) . The skier would not have been aware of that.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Ok, you're focussing on the specifics of that particular day there Otto, and you may be right! I thought I read something that implied more hikers around that day (paraphrasing but something about "everyone else was on their way down"?) but I can't substantiate it.

But I was also thinking in wider terms of the days leading up to it, and just making the point that in general there were still a fair few people out and about hiking the hills and it was not as quiet as might be thought. Also we can't take it for granted that no one was ascending from the French side (lockdown or not) . The skier would not have been aware of that.

I wonder if there were any local appeals for people who may have walked the area on 23rd/24th. Did anyone see or hear anything out of place at all in those days before SAR arrived? Did anyone use the refuge / toilet? Even being able to say they saw nothing, rather than something, could possibly help the investigation.

 

[RedHaus]

Thanks, yes OK with the ankle it's managable. The Brecon Beacons are great (I did Pen Y Fan and then down via Cribyn and it was glorious but gets really misty), but a bit further North in mid Wales it gets much more remote - this is a great book about a guy who lived off grid there for years https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Country-Years-Welsh-Hills/dp/0141049324

Shame what you say about Maine forests being stripped, guess I'd built up an idealised picture in my mind. If I ever get to the US again certainly a place I'd love to visit.

I lived in Maine for 15 years --- moved more south 15 months ago. The winters are brutal and very long - like six months! It is a magnificent place to explore - especially the mountain and coast regions. Great skiing, great hiking, great sailing, etc. And RickshawFan is absolutely correct, the woods, nearly all over Maine are mostly new growth, relatively speaking. That is, except in far reaches of rough terrain. The amount of logging in the north county of Maine is just staggering...

But Maine is a beautiful place to visit - all of New England is really.... I encourage anyone who has not been in that region of the U.S. to explore (when you can, of course!)

 

[Grouse]

I wonder if there were any local appeals for people who may have walked the area on 23rd/24th. Did anyone see or hear anything out of place at all in those days before SAR arrived? Did anyone use the refuge / toilet? Even being able to say they saw nothing, rather than something, could possibly help the investigation.

Not to mention the Cabane de la Besurta where ED stayed on the night of 21st. Presumably that has been equally checked, eg for evidence of if anyone else stayed there that night or if ED was alone.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Not to mention the Cabane de la Besurta where ED stayed on the night of 21st. Presumably that has been equally checked, eg for evidence of if anyone else stayed there that night or if ED was alone.

I do wonder if Esther went back there for the night on 22nd. I can’t recall which news outlet mentioned the Maladeta Glacier but it was not on her planned route, and I thought at that time it was an odd place to mention.

But.... maybe she saw it from Sauvegarde and changed her plan, decided to get home a day or two earlier by crashing at La Besurta again and crossing the glacier the next day. It would be the most direct route from La B to the campervan. And we know Esther loves glaciers. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if she’s found there.