Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020 #6

[RickshawFan]

It’s ironic if the brightest thing she had is not with her. Who knows, maybe she fell and was hurt, so got it out of her backpack because it’s highly visible, but it blew away before she was found. I really hope she didn’t lay there, broken and starving until she passed away.

A big lesson here is to always wear the brightest coloured clothing you can if solo hiking. Had her coat or rucksack been bright yellow, she might have been spotted sooner.

Actually, don't leave the trail. If there are people and you have to pee, mark where you step off; you can leave a bandana or something. I usually just drop my poles next to the trail.

 

[RickshawFan]

Yes. Also cover body with rocks and stones. Maybe it is good to wait and see what police think about remains of Esther Dingley and where she was lying? In my opinion they will be looking for sign of fall on body. Also if she was not dead if she fell then not saying route and not reporting missing sad and deadly maybe. In my opinion.

Yes, they may find that she hit her head.

 

[RickshawFan]

I suppose this means the remains were higher than the Port de la Glare, but below the Pic de la Glere.

"But it was Dan Colegate who, Monday afternoon, spotted the body and the belongings of his companion, below the Pic de la Gléré, in a sector "very difficult to access", and reported it to gendarmes, who intervened on the spot."

"According to the family of the 37-year-old British blogger , the discovery was made " near where" her skull was found two weeks ago. According to our information, they were spotted "in a very rugged area", at the Pic de la Gléré, a few hundred meters higher than the eponymous Port."
​

Pyrénées. Après son crâne, le reste du corps et le matériel d'Esther Dingley retrouvés | Actu Toulouse

I read this as, ED had to have gone up the PicdelaG trail/route. Whether there's a trail or not is unclear on maps, but there's definitely a way to get up the PicdelaG.

This way, the skull fragment would have rolled down with gravity or been carried down on gravity-pulled snow-melt.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Yes, they may find that she hit her head.

I’m worried the post mortem will be inconclusive. Broken bones or blunt force trauma will be obvious, but I suppose the rest depends on how much soft tissue and organs remain. It may be that Esther was more preserved in the snow, but she also could have been open to the elements and wildlife.

I believe that hypothermia, for example, is hard to diagnose/prove. Starvation would only be conclusive if her stomach is mainly intact. Cuts or bruises only remain if skin is present. I think it’s really important to get a definitive answer about why and how Esther died, but I’m not overly optimistic about the results.

 

[Grouse]

I’m worried the post mortem will be inconclusive. Broken bones or blunt force trauma will be obvious, but I suppose the rest depends on how much soft tissue and organs remain. It may be that Esther was more preserved in the snow, but she also could have been open to the elements and wildlife.

I believe that hypothermia, for example, is hard to diagnose/prove. Starvation would only be conclusive if her stomach is mainly intact. Cuts or bruises only remain if skin is present. I think it’s really important to get a definitive answer about why and how Esther died, but I’m not overly optimistic about the results.

Hopefully they will establish cause of death. Not the same physical environment I know, but in the case of Geraldine Largay, whose body wasn't found for about two years, they managed to establish cause of death as lack of food and water combined with exposure, via DNA analysis. --> Medical Examiner: Geraldine Largay Died from Lack of Food, Water

 

[Hope4More]

I'm just looking at different articles trying to get a sense of where exactly the body was found.

This is the google earth link to the Port de la Glere.

Google Earth

I'm curious whether they mean near Pic de Sacroux.

Randonnée Pic de Sacroux | rando-marche

Not sure yet.

If she stayed in Spain overnight, hiked to Port de la Glere in the moring, arrived after noon, perhaps hiked Pic de Sacroux (which is not an easy trail), still not dipping into France but perhaps wanting to enjoy the view.

I'm not ruling out suicide.

Of the not many possible causes of her death, I think suicide is absolutely the least likely. Here is a woman who responded to the near death experience of her boyfriend by hitting the road to live life most fully & joyfully. For years. There's no reason not to trust what her boyfriend has said about their relationship. And it looks like one of the last things she did was to get in touch with him to share what she was experiencing. By choice. She looked & "sounded" perfectly happy .

For a long while the odds seemed to favor the possibility she was kidnapped, taken off the mountain, and likely murdered. Even with the dearth of hikers, given Covid, her path was close enough to roads for her to be visible & vulnerable to a opportunistic killer.

What seems more certain than not now is that she slipped/ turned her ankle/ miscalculated a rock hop & stumbled; some such routine mishap that turned fatal with a bad or long fall.

Especially given that cell phone reception was apparently quite good in most of the area where she had been hiking, the most likely explanation for why she never made a call was that either she was holding her phone when she fell & it it was knocked out of her hand, irretrievably, or, that the fall itself was immediately fatal, or, that she was completely incapacitated by the fall. Common denominator: a fall.

 

[ZaZara]

Here's a link to a blog post that describes someone's hike to Pic de la Glere and Pic de Sacroux. I'm guessing that ED decided to get a view from one of these two before descending toward her motorhome. It has some good photos that give a sense of the environment.
http://robertetlespyrenees.kazeo.com/pic-de-sacroux-2676-m-et-pic-de-la-glere-2496-m-a120142244

From Google Earth/Maps, you can see a path to the right, almost immediately after you pass over Port de la Glere to the Spanish side, that looks like it takes you to Pic de Sacroux. The path is above the lake.
Here is the view from the top... a nice flat area with a great view to across Port de la Glere to Pico de la Glere (which doesn't look as 'friendly' to add on an impulsive off trail climb).

Google Maps

Thank you for posting this!


These two friends came from the Spanish side. Their description of the Pic de la Glere:

Once we reach the Port de la Glère, at around 2320 metres, we abandon the route to the nearby Port de la Glère and make a steep climb up the crumbling scree slope on the north-western flank of the Pic de la Glère, the slope becoming even steeper as we reach the base of two couloirs*. After a visit to the one on the right, which appears even more austere, we decide to take the one on the left, which is made up of earth, rocks and loose gravel (where the use of an ice axe will be vital as not much is secure), located to the right of a rocky and grassy spur. At the top of the couloir, we split up, Dinosaure going to the right to attack the ridge to the west of the summit and I going to the left to go around a spur on the left to approach the summit ridge from the east. After a short and easier climb for me, we reach the summit of the Glère peak. On the careful descent where I took the route up using the ice axe more than ever, the rocks were coming from all sides, Dinosaure having moved off to the right to follow the steep rocky and grassy ridge would find a few cairns that would lead him to a grassy area, which seemed to be the "normal" way up


Picture won't post, so no picture

Link: http://ekladata.com/[email protected]

 

[Grouse]

"Christophe Amunzateguy, the French prosecutor leading the investigation, told the Guardian that the police believed “strongly, even almost exclusively” that her death was an accident based on where her body was found."

Body of British hiker Esther Dingley found by partner in Pyrenees

BBM

 

[Hope4More]

Thank you for posting this!


These two friends came from the Spanish side. Their description of the Pic de la Glere:

Once we reach the Port de la Glère, at around 2320 metres, we abandon the route to the nearby Port de la Glère and make a steep climb up the crumbling scree slope on the north-western flank of the Pic de la Glère, the slope becoming even steeper as we reach the base of two couloirs*. After a visit to the one on the right, which appears even more austere, we decide to take the one on the left, which is made up of earth, rocks and loose gravel (where the use of an ice axe will be vital as not much is secure), located to the right of a rocky and grassy spur. At the top of the couloir, we split up, Dinosaure going to the right to attack the ridge to the west of the summit and I going to the left to go around a spur on the left to approach the summit ridge from the east. After a short and easier climb for me, we reach the summit of the Glère peak. On the careful descent where I took the route up using the ice axe more than ever, the rocks were coming from all sides, Dinosaure having moved off to the right to follow the steep rocky and grassy ridge would find a few cairns that would lead him to a grassy area, which seemed to be the "normal" way up


Picture won't post, so no picture

Link: http://ekladata.com/[email protected]

"Crumbling scree"..... has there ever been a hiker traversing through steep slopes of that who hasn't slipped/lost her footing, at least briefly?

 

[Grouse]

Hopefully they will establish cause of death. Not the same physical environment I know, but in the case of Geraldine Largay, whose body wasn't found for about two years, they managed to establish cause of death as lack of food and water combined with exposure, via DNA analysis. --> Medical Examiner: Geraldine Largay Died from Lack of Food, Water

Another thing I've just recalled about the Geraldine Largay case is that, even after two years, they were able to analyse her phone and recover all the failed text messages she'd tried to send. So hopefully Esther's phone, if it was still with her and not lost down the mountain, or destroyed by snow/meltwater, will reveal some vital clues.

 

[Federico_A]

It's bizarre (though I suppose we knew it would be). Having scoured Google Earth, the only places where she could have fallen to her death without being easily spotted are well off the path and hardly places she (or anyone) would want to get to, especially in that season. It's surely technically possible to get up to the ridge to the east of P de la Glere, or even to the top of that small pic, but it would be quite a scramble and the view from the top would hardly be worth it (not much better than from P de la Glere itself and nothing like as good as from Sauvegarde).

I'm assuming she was found on the French side, though as usual it's the drip-drip of information that is liable to get distorted along the way. They could easily describe exactly where she was found or even pin-point it on a map, but it's always a case of 'betray the information, lose the power'. As was definitely the case with Libby Squire in Hull, the authorities are desperate not to let the public crack the case before they do. It's possible we may never get to know the exact spot where Esther fell/was found.

In the meantime, given the oddness of the likely location, suicide still has to be a possibility.

 

[Seni]

I’m worried the post mortem will be inconclusive. Broken bones or blunt force trauma will be obvious, but I suppose the rest depends on how much soft tissue and organs remain. It may be that Esther was more preserved in the snow, but she also could have been open to the elements and wildlife.

I believe that hypothermia, for example, is hard to diagnose/prove. Starvation would only be conclusive if her stomach is mainly intact. Cuts or bruises only remain if skin is present. I think it’s really important to get a definitive answer about why and how Esther died, but I’m not overly optimistic about the results.

My husband (biologist) finds the separation between finds of body and piece of skull to be strange. No natural fall could easily explain this distance and dislocation between head and body. Unless bones were moved/dislocated by some means.

Of course we are still waiting for the coordinates.

The heaviest piece of the skeleton is the skull, even without eyes and tongues, it is very heavy and would not be the choisiest part for a scavenger bird to be pick /be able to pick up.

IMO

 

[Snoopster]

It's bizarre (though I suppose we knew it would be). Having scoured Google Earth, the only places where she could have fallen to her death without being easily spotted are well off the path and hardly places she (or anyone) would want to get to, especially in that season. It's surely technically possible to get up to the ridge to the east of P de la Glere, or even to the top of that small pic, but it would be quite a scramble and the view from the top would hardly be worth it (not much better than from P de la Glere itself and nothing like as good as from Sauvegarde).

I'm assuming she was found on the French side, though as usual it's the drip-drip of information that is liable to get distorted along the way. They could easily describe exactly where she was found or even pin-point it on a map, but it's always a case of 'betray the information, lose the power'. As was definitely the case with Libby Squire in Hull, the authorities are desperate not to let the public crack the case before they do. It's possible we may never get to know the exact spot where Esther fell/was found.

In the meantime, given the oddness of the likely location, suicide still has to be a possibility.

That's why I'm leaning toward her going to Pic de Sacroux. It's got a great viewing area and there seems to be a short path up to there from Port de la Glere.

 

[searancke]

My husband (biologist) finds the separation between finds of body and piece of skull to be strange. No natural fall could easily explain this distance and dislocation between head and body. Unless bones were moved/dislocated by some means.

Of course we are still waiting for the coordinates.

The heaviest piece of the skeleton is the skull, even without eyes and tongues, it is very heavy and would not be the choisiest part for a scavenger bird to be pick /be able to pick up.

IMO

The reports are saying that she has fallen from the Pic de la Glere and has come to rest on the very very steep (cliff) under the Pic above the level of the Port

The actu.fr article is contradictory about the precise location of her remains, but perhaps that's to be expected at this stage. They're said to be "below the Pic" and also "a few hundred metres above the Port":

Pyrénées. Après son crâne, le reste du corps et le matériel d'Esther Dingley retrouvés | Actu Toulouse

The translation is

According to the family of the 37-year-old British blogger , the discovery was made " near where" her skull was found two weeks ago. According to our information, they were spotted "in a very rugged area", at the level of the Pic de la Gléré, a few hundred meters higher than the eponymous Port.

The skull was then found at the 2200m ridge line (can't find the quote at the moment). which is below the Porte de la Glere and below where she has been found.

So probably the head has "become detached" whether by animals or decay and simply rolled/moved with water to where it was found.

 

[Hexe]

My husband (biologist) finds the separation between finds of body and piece of skull to be strange. No natural fall could easily explain this distance and dislocation between head and body. Unless bones were moved/dislocated by some means.

Of course we are still waiting for the coordinates.

The heaviest piece of the skeleton is the skull, even without eyes and tongues, it is very heavy and would not be the choisiest part for a scavenger bird to be pick /be able to pick up.

IMO

Exactly. The skull is heavy and that might be what made it move. We know the rest of Esther's body was somewhere above the spot the skull was found in. Now, it will be quite morbid, but if the body was sitting, the weight of the skull, along with the ongoing decomp of gristle and soft tissue could make the neck snap. And when it snapped there was nothing to stop the skull from rolling down the slope.

Again, forgive me for the morbidity of this description. We should remember though that in the mountains the gravity, snow and water can scatter the bones even without scavengers at work.

 

[OEJ-JEO]

The reports are saying that she has fallen from the Pic de la Glere and has come to rest on the very very steep (cliff) under the Pic above the level of the Port

Right.

The translation is

According to the family of the 37-year-old British blogger , the discovery was made " near where" her skull was found two weeks ago. According to our information, they were spotted "in a very rugged area", at the level of the Pic de la Gléré, a few hundred meters higher than the eponymous Port.

My confusion came from the contradiction between "au niveau du Pic de la Gléré, quelques centaines de mètres plus haut que le Port" and "en contrebas du Pic de la Gléré". It's not actually possible to be a few hundred metres in altitude above the Port while remaining on the Pic, and a point below the Pic would be well below the level of the Port. Below the summit but above the level of the Port is a logical interpretation though. It may be that the original report was a garbling of "au niveau du Pic de la Gléré", "plus haut que le Port", and "à quelques centaines de mètres du Port", which together make perfect sense.

 

[OEJ-JEO]

The skull is heavy and that might be what made it move. We know the rest of Esther's body was somewhere above the spot the skull was found in. Now, it will be quite morbid, but if the body was sitting, the weight of the skull, along with the ongoing decomp of gristle and soft tissue could make the neck snap. And when it snapped there was nothing to stop the skull from rolling down the slope.

Again, forgive me for the morbidity of this description. We should remember though that in the mountains the gravity, snow and water can scatter the bones even without scavengers at work.

It seems likely to me that her clothing would also help to keep the rest of her remains together, while her head was more exposed.

 

[mrjitty]

Not surprised she was found quickly after the piece of skull turned up - she was never likely to be far from there. As has been posited by Search and Rescue, the 'mystery' is because we didn't know exactly where she might have left the expected trail, and thus where she might have fell from.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The reports are saying that she has fallen from the Pic de la Glere and has come to rest on the very very steep (cliff) under the Pic above the level of the Port



.

I guess if she has ended up somewhere that’s it’s impossible to get to on purpose, it means she can only have fallen there from above. So if she was found on a ledge below a cliff, and couldn’t have climbed onto it herself, she can only have dropped there from above. This might be why the police seem certain it was an accident.

I’m also wondering now, whether Dan found her remains by sight (binoculars/drone?) rather than actually being able to physically reach her.

Not sure I’ve explained that very well, hope it makes sense!

 

[pineapple23]

So if she was found on a ledge below a cliff, and couldn’t have climbed onto it herself, she can only have dropped there from above. This might be why the police seem certain it was an accident.

That, her cheerful appearance in the last photo and other factors, make me think that suicide is an unlikely option - unless spur of the moment or suicide staged as an accident to spare people's feelings. But what a way to go - especially as you couldn't guarantee you would be killed outright. Personally if so inclined, I would find myself a nice spot and let hypothermia take its toll.