2nd December 2020
BBC Breakfast
Q: Dan, thank you very much for talking to us this morning. How are you?
DC: (Pause) It’s a difficult time.
Q: It certainly is, um, why do you want to talk to us today? What, how, what, what hope of help are you hoping to get?
DC: Over the past few days the search has been very intense in an area near where Es was walking, she had a clearly defined route, we know exactly where she was the last time she communicated with us and there’s been increasing talk among the search teams that perhaps she isn’t up there after all. Based on a number of factors, with Esther’s level of experience, the fact the weather was fantastic, these are clearly marked trails, and the depth of search that’s taken place, um, it’s increasingly become more plausible she isn’t, hasn’t had an accident on the mountain rather than the fact they simply couldn’t find her. And partly the reason I wanted to talk today was because if there’s even the smallest chance she is, (chokes up) excuse me, is still out, is still out there, then I’d like to get that message out that it’s a possibility and that she may still come home.
Q: What have you been told, um, are the possibilities if she’s not on the mountain?
DC: They haven’t speculated with me. The search teams on both sides of the border, the French and Spanish sides, so Esther, Esther was hiking in Spain for the past few weeks, she was clearly compliant with local regulations and such and she was only planning to dip into France for a particular remote mountain shelter and so, but that’s required search on both sides. Both teams have been very honest with me about their expectations with the search X taking place. Now that the case has become more of a judicial investigation in each country, they’ve advised me to do my best not to think about what that might mean. And simply that something else might, may have happened. And that they’re going to start looking into that.
Q: Dan I know this is a difficult time, we began this interview with you saying that, but what is the implication? What have they told you to be prepared for?
DC: Nothing, nothing specific. Um I’ve spent most of the last 4 days walking, to be honest, I’ve been out on the hills um retracing the routes that the search teams had already walked. They walked them multiple times, I walked them multiple times, I’m familiar with the terrain myself now. All they simply said is ‘we don’t think Esther has had an accident on the mountain’. Um they can never be totally 100% certain, it’s still a mountain landscape, but given the nature of the terrain they’ve just come to the conclusion that further search isn’t going to find her because she probably isn’t there, and I need to start waiting for the other police departments to start looking into this.
Q: Esther messaged you via WhatsApp the social media messaging um app on the 22nd of November and then she was on the top of Pic de Sauvegarde on the France/Spain border. It was quite common for you two to be in regular contact and you have absolute confidence in her ability as a walker and someone who’s done this before on her own, is that correct?
DC: Yeah, Esther and I have walked I don’t know how many thousand miles together, we did a 3-month trek this summer, um in the Alps. She’s done solo treks on her own, several times. She’s very competent, very confident, and she had all the equipment with her to stay safe. She usually kept in touch daily but she had warned me there was poor signal in the area and sometimes when she was on her solo trips it wasn’t unknown that it would be one or two days before I heard from her. It was always worrying but she was doing what she absolutely loved to do, I’ve never seen her as happy as she has been the past few weeks, so I respect that side of her and I loved her for it, I, love her for it. She, when she didn’t get in touch I assumed it was a signal issue. Now I’ve since been in the area and found that the signal is actually quite good in a lot of the places she might have been, so, um again that actually narrows down the, if she had had an accident and that was the reason she couldn’t have been in touch it must have been in a very very small area indeed which has been poured over by people, drones, helicopter, dogs, um, yep, so that’s why I, I’m I’m convinced that she isn’t up there.
Q: Ok, um Dan this is a very very tough time, you’ve made that very clear for you and of course for Esther’s family as well. Thank you for talking to us this morning and wish you well and obviously hope for a positive outcome in finding Esther, Esther Dingley.
DC: Thank you very much.
BBC iPlayer - Breakfast - 02/12/2020