I’m quite concerned about the Astra situation too. Lots of people on here seem to think this is the key to the case and unfortunately I think they are wrong.
Everyone on this site has the best intentions in finding LS and finding out the truth of what has happened. There are lots of theories to try and understand and explain this but very little evidence to support most of these theories. The police have released little information and I feel they are as perplexed as the rest of us.
We need to look at what we KNOW about the Astra or Astras, as there appears to be more than one.
The first thing we actually know for certain is that PR has a Vauxhall Astra. From the photo of it on the transporter it appears to be silver or very light grey.
The second thing we know for certain is that in the cctv released today of LS outside the Welly a silver Vauxhall Astra drives past the queue of people waiting to get into the club. It does this at normal road speeds and at no time does the driver appear to slow down to look at anyone in the queue. There is no way of knowing if this Astra belongs to PR.
The other potential sightings of a Vauxhall Astra need to be discarded as they are not evidence and they are clouding people’s thoughts and leading to theories being made that are not supported by actual evidence.
The car in the cobweb cctv may or may not be a Vauxhall Astra. It has not been confirmed as such by anyone as far as I am aware. I do agree it is similar in size and the colour could be silver or light grey. I do not believe it is PR car and after comparing it to the Astra on the transporter I can definitely see the wheels are a different design. To my mind this car is a red herring and people need to discard it from their thoughts and concentrate on other evidence.
If the police believed this car was PR car they would have made much more of it.
I think to understand why this car has become such a focal point to all of us trying to make sense of what has happened to LS we need to take a step back and consider how the police came to suspect PR of possible involvement in her disappearance. I say possible as we do not know categorically that he is involved at all but all our wild theories are leading us into this line of thought.
This is my understanding of it.
The police are trawling through hours and hours of cctv trying to work out where LS went and how she got there. During this time I would imagine several vehicles kept cropping up as being in the area for a long period or acting suspiciously in some way. Most drivers would just be going about there normal business like going to or from work or a restaurant or cinema. But I dare say a few caused the police to make a few extra enquiries. Maybe they saw some known offenders vehicles or maybe known drug dealers or disqualified drivers. Maybe the ANPR flagged up some cars without insurance or tax. Maybe that’s how they hit on PR.
What I think happened then is that they did a PNC check on PR registration number and saw he was local ran other checks such as criminal records check. Maybe they come back with something maybe not.
To satisfy their curiosity they put his name in social media and hey presto there is his photo. Maybe one of the police doing the donkey work puts 2 and 2 together and thinks this looks like the flasher in the EFIT. And he lives bang in the middle of all the burglaries and flashing.
The police can’t believe their luck. This must be the guy let’s go and arrest him. So they take him in and take his prints and DNA and they get a match for some sex toy burglaries and some flashing in the area local to LS address but he says it’s not him but they hold him for 4 days hoping to find some evidence he is involved with LS disappearance but they don’t.
That is the only reason a Vauxhall Astra is relevant to this case and there is absolutely no evidence to connect PR to LS other than he owns an Astra.
There is no evidence connecting LS with a Vauxhall Astra.
I think the police have put everything into trying to find evidence that fits their theory instead of letting the evidence lead them to LS.
For the record I can see why the police went down this route and I can understand why many of us on here want it to be him but after 12 days I’m starting to wonder if the police haven’t put all their eggs in the wrong basket.
I truly hope they and some of you prove me wrong.
Thank you for very well written post. I have my doubts on some of the investigation too and your thoughts would support those strange statements from news that arrested PR is not the man seen in the CCTV.
PR does not seem typical hardened criminal we usually see arrested in serious crimes and neither from description of his character from people who know him (work collegues, shop keepers, neighbours), hence many people have doubts. Of course looks and manners could be deceiving.
Charges they brought upon him suddenly do sound ridiculous and I do wonder if any of them are really proven rather then based on loose evidence just to keep him in jail at all cost. I mean, charged with stealing 3 vibrators? Seriously Humbert police?
I do want to see how that indecent public thing, vouyerims and trespassing charges will be handled in court. I mean I am curious to know if they do have concrete evidence for all those and it is not all based just on loose e-fit image. If no real evidence, then only thing what could be proven with certainity would be stolen laptop and xbox/playstation.
With regards to PR and smoking man in the CCTV. Question would be, if it is not him, who is it? And why was not THat guy arrested rather then PR by now??? I have no doubt they have all intelligence gathered on that car and smoking guy by now. Again, if it is not the same person, would that mean PR picked Libby only after this smoking guy did?
You said to disregard that whole CCTV. We simply can't. I think due to location and timing, it is no coincidence and this CCTV is probably smoking gun for police.
So again, with regards to news claiming it is not the same guy, it might be your theory or otherwise I am clueless why they are stating that.
For any car buffs out there, can anyone analyze if towed PR car is exact same car as seen on CCTV with smoking guy? Can anyone be certain?
