Pyrénées. Mort d'Esther Dingley : deux semaines après la découverte de son crâne, le mystère reste entier | Actu Toulouse
Pyrenees. Death of Esther Dingley: two weeks after the discovery of her skull, the mystery continues
After the skull of Esther Dingley was found near Luchon, a forensic scientist and an anthropologist are currently analysing it in Toulouse in an attempt to shed light on the case.
The skull of Esther Dingley has not yet revealed all its secrets. Two weeks after the discovery of bones - this skull, but also two bones that came from animals - at the Port de la Gléré, in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute-Garonne), the investigators of the investigation section of Toulouse are working to find out what happened to this 37-year-old English blogger, who disappeared eight months ago.
Although DNA analyses have quickly "confirmed that it was indeed the skull of the young woman", two weeks after the macabre discovery of Spanish hikers on the French side of the massif,
the investigators have not yet made "any new discoveries," Christophe Amunzateguy, the public prosecutor of Saint-Gaudens, told Actu Toulouse on Friday 6 August 2021. Many police officers have however gone over the area with a fine comb. So far, in vain.
It should be remembered that apart from this skull, no other part of the body, nor any belongings of the victim, have been found. Neither her bag, nor her clothes. Not even her famous bright yellow tent.
The case was entrusted by the prosecutor to the investigators of the investigation section (SR) of Toulouse, already put to the test these last months by another very mediatic disappearance, that of Delphine Jubillar. They have the heavy task of "drawing up a scenario to explain the disappearance of Esther Dingley," according to Christophe Amunzateguy.
"The investigations are continuing, and they are being carried out with great vigour," the prosecutor insists. He assures us that the Toulouse investigators, like the police on the ground, are "actively searching" for any clues about Esther Dingley. But Christophe Amunzateguy is clear:
it will take time to get to the bottom of this case.
"I told the investigators of the Toulouse Regional Police that I would give them a month to investigate, so that they could work calmly and figure out what happened.
On the spot, the gendarmerie also deployed important means: patrols combed the area daily. Here, soldiers from the high mountain gendarmerie unit (PGHM) of Luchon. There, their colleagues from the mountain group of the Saint-Gaudens gendarmerie company...
So many men who, according to a source close to the investigation, have once again "carried out searches in certain sectors that are very difficult to access", around the Port de la Gléré, since the discovery of the bones. A drone was also made available to the PGHM, with a remote pilot, in this case a soldier from the mobile gendarmerie squadron of Saint-Gaudens.
But all these investigations were "complicated by the wind and the weather of these last weeks in the mountains."
Although they were "upset" by the news, Dan Colegate and Ria Bryant, Esther Dingley's partner and mother, are also still in the area, and are trying to contribute to the search in their own way.
As he has often done over the past eight months, Dan Colegate has been walking the trails in the area for the past two weeks, always hoping to find more traces of his partner. But once again, nothing came of it.
The skull must now be examined by specialists in forensic medicine, but also, according to our information, by an anthropologist from the Ville Rose, who was called in for the occasion.
They will multiply over the next few weeks "scientific research on the bones found," the prosecutor confirms. With the objective of determining the causes of death, to try to solve this mystery. And to be able to put forward "a scenario of what could have happened, whether it is an accidental or criminal theory, because we are not closing the door to any hypothesis."
Have animal bites or any other marks been found on the skull? And if so, were they from before or after her death? According to the head of the public prosecutor's office in Saint-Gaudens, it is too early to say anything. But according to various sources, Esther Dingley's skull was not whole. It was only the upper part, with long hair, which made it possible to quickly carry out the DNA tests.
"Everything leads us to believe that these are bones recently moved by animals", Jean-Marc Bordinaro, the second in command of the Saint-Gaudens gendarmerie company, told Actu Toulouse, specifying that they had "certainly stayed in a cavity."
"It is the most plausible hypothesis," according to Colonel Xavier Wargnier, of the Occitania Gendarmerie.
But it is not the only one either: found at an altitude of 2,200 metres, on the French side of the Port de la Gléré, a few hundred metres from the Spanish side, they could also have fallen down the mountain with the thaw or the rain. Especially since it is a snow-covered area for a good part of the winter, when it is very difficult to access... So many detailts that the experts from Toulouse will have to confirm or deny.
One thing seems certain for the moment: these bones were not there a few days earlier. "The skull was found on the edge of a hiking trail. Given the number of people who passed by the location in the previous days, if it had been there, it would have been spotted," according to a source close to the case on Friday.
BBM
