Found Deceased UK - Doug Carroll, 29, car abandoned in Berks, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 20 Apr 2021

[MsMiniSleuth]

Kat Foy

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Missing persons U.K and Beyond : Still missing after 6 weeks

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Still nothing.

Group appealing for help to raise awareness

Kat Foy

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

High risk and still missing.

Kat Foy

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

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[JuicyLucy]

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I am finding this case very frustrating. With links to both his home town and his last known location, I'm interested in Doug's case and would like to be able to come up with something constructive, but there's just so little to go on.

As far as I can see, there's no information on what connection, if any, he has with the location where his car was found. The posters say that it was found 'on the Ridgeway', as if the presumption is that he has travelled along the Ridgeway in one or other direction, rather than staying in that area or moving/travelling onwards by some ordinary means.

Was he a walker? Had he been there before? Was he from that area originally or was anyone significant in striking distance? Are any of the villages or locations on the Ridgeway of significance? In short, is there anything about that location as a place he drove to and parked at that is not completely random? We just don't seem to know. Nothing seems to have been said at all, even anything that suggests it was random. Did the car still have petrol in it? Was it caught on ANPR en route and if so was his route direct or haphazard?

Furthermore, the fb page seems to be being run by someone who's not at the heart of the investigation. Has his bank account seen any action? Has his phone yielded any information? The police have looked at these things apparently but according to the fb page they 'don't make these things public' - well, no, but they would tell the family. This is information that is usually in the public domain in missing persons cases afaik.

The story is that land and drone searches have been unsuccessful because there's just so much land there to search, and it's rural and not densely populated, and there are so many villages and farms and buildings and sheds... but I'm not seeing how this is different from any other rural or semi rural area. The recent search effort for Frankie Morris in North Wales involved drones, helicopters, SAR teams, dogs, horses, divers, etc in terrain that was more difficult if anything. Frankie was young, but not a minor, and Doug is described as being 'at high risk', so what is the difference?

I'm in two (OK, three) minds as to whether Thames Valley Police have dropped the ball, whether the family is not supportive of a high profile campaign for whatever reason, or whether this is genuinely a more problematic disappearance than many. Is it administrative? The Ridgeway crosses the border between the Thames Valley Police area into the Wiltshire Police area. Has Doug been caught in the crossfire of an argument about who pays for the drones and the dogs? I can hardly believe it, and yet frustratingly little seems to have been attempted except a lot of postering that has achieved nothing as far as I can see.

Is it just me? I feel like I want to try and get some answers with this case, even if they're not happy ones.

JMO

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Some good points there, @JuicyLucy

<modsnip>

I too wondered about the significance of the area where his car was found. There may of course be no discernible link - as in case of Richard Okorogheye.

 

[DAMages]

<modsnip>



'We just want to know he is safe'

From that article:

Doug Carroll, who is from Tunbridge Wells, was last seen on April 20 on the day he was due to start a new job. However the 29-year-old did not go to work, but returned home. Later his partner ET came back to find he was gone.​

 

[JuicyLucy]

Just correcting this misconception. Kat Foy is helping to manage his Facebook page, but she often posts about "Doug's family" and does not count herself among them. Doug is not married. According to the article below, his girlfriend/partner's name is Emma Tapp.

'We just want to know he is safe'

From that article:

Doug Carroll, who is from Tunbridge Wells, was last seen on April 20 on the day he was due to start a new job. However the 29-year-old did not go to work, but returned home. Later his partner Emma Tapp came back to find he was gone.​

Yes, I saw that, and it's literally the only piece of information we have about why he might have gone missing. Even then, it doesn't seem to have been seen as that significant: his girlfriend said: "He had gone off for a new job that morning. That was not going to work out, and he came home. When I got home he was just gone." As if turning up to a new job, finding it wasn't 'going to work out' and just coming home again is somehow a normal state of affairs. Or perhaps it is in some work sectors? Hard to judge as we don't even know what he does for a living.

@MsMiniSleuth, yes, I am on fb. I've just read through the whole page, but it seems to me that almost any comments other than 'shared in Timbuktu, thoughts and prayers' isn't really welcomed. Any questions are met with 'I don't know, the police haven't told us', any criticisms, however constructive, with a telling off to 'keep things positive'.

<modsnip>

I can't put my finger on it, but I feel there are mixed messages somehow in this case.

<modsnip>

ETA JMO & BBM

 

[JuicyLucy]

Actually, I've now read the link completely and see this too:

Ms Tapp explained how Mr Carroll, who had been out of work for a number of months, had struggled with his mental health in the past but said he had made a lot of progress dealing with it.

And also that he was born in the area the car was found although he had spent virtually no time there before moving away as a small child. That's a snippet of significant information at least.

So thanks for the link @DAMages.

I wonder in light of that if the family are not expecting good news and feel they're in no rush to get bad.

JMO

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

9 weeks. Still missing.

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[MsMiniSleuth]

Still missing...

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Message from his mum on the help page:

"I love you son xx "

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[JuicyLucy]

Ah, ok, Reading is not so very local really, so that's probably less significant than I was imagining. The reports I read made it sound as though he/you came originally from one of the villages on the Ridgeway and it made me wonder if going there had the manner of a pilgrimage, kind of thing.

The Ridgeway is also a huge destination for walkers. You say he's fit (and outdoorsy?) so is it possible he chose it for that reason? Does he walk recreationally, read walking magazines etc? If so, he would very likely know it in that context. Walking the Ridgeway is like walking Hadrian's Wall or the South Downs Way or something. I wonder if the police found its route in his search history. If so, I would perhaps look at all the locations on it in detail (online or on a map) and try to figure out if any of those might have caught his imagination somehow. (Maybe you already have.)

I think it's good that the car had petrol and was locked. That suggests purpose and 'normal' behaviour, rather than going on an erratic tear. Was the place he stopped scenic, a viewpoint? You said farmer's land - did he go off the public highway, i.e. was technically trespassing? That would be odd, if so. Does he have panic attacks? And is he a confident driver? Is it possible he pulled off the road to calm down after, say, a near miss or an incident with another car?

In my experience, retracing someone's steps yourself can be really instructive in terms of seeing and noticing what they saw - and realising what might have gone through their head when they saw it, especially if you know them well. It sounds like you or other family/friends may have done that? What were your thoughts/instincts?

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Now almost 3 months missing...

 

[StillDiggin]

Great thoughts. I think he couldnt of walked far down ridgeway as surely being the time Doug would have been there would have been popular with dog walkers so you would of expected more sightings ( late afternoon) when Doug would of been there. The pokerstars bag didnt look the biggest to carry to much stuff. There was a case recently someone missing and found 3 months later. He was living with a community in Suffolk.
The only possible sighting given out was the one that saw him on foot walking in the general direction of Aldworth.
I also noticed with interest the train to London possibility, i image there are train stations around Ridgeway with easy access to London. I really hope we can get some news soon about Doug.

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

@Lookingforbrother Have you contacted Locate?

Case Review - Locate International

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Over 3 months now...

 

[CocoChanel]

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[MsMiniSleuth]

30th birthday today.

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