Found Deceased UK - Susan McLean, 61, U.S. tourist, Aberfeldy, Scotland, 17 May 2015

[Missing Susan]

Hi Eqs and welcome to WS. Thank you for posting. I was wondering if you or your mutual friends could perhaps get a little more info from Susan's sister or sons that could help hippy hippy with her selfless search? She has devoted so much time and effort to finding Susan and she is an angel on earth.

Forgive me for asking, but is there any reason why so little info has been forthcoming? This forum is no joke and posters here have great minds. I have been posting in the COTH forum, hoping someone could fill in the blanks, to no avail. Thank you for posting here as Susan seems to have been so well liked within the Equestrian community.

Hi zuri, I followed you over from COTH hoping that I could do something to help find Susan. She was my eventing coach when i was in pony club.



Dear hippyhippy, thanks from all of us who wish we could be there to help you search. You are looking for an amazing person. Susan is a bright and cheerful soul who encouraged many to reach their potential. The smile you see in all the photos of her is the expression of her natural state of being.

 

[Queen Bee]

Hi zuri, I followed you over from COTH hoping that I could do something to help find Susan. She was my eventing coach when i was in pony club.



Dear hippyhippy, thanks from all of us who wish we could be there to help you search. You are looking for an amazing person. Susan is a bright and cheerful soul who encouraged many to reach their potential. The smile you see in all the photos of her is the expression of her natural state of being.

thank you missingsusan for joining us and i'm so sorry it had to be for this reason :hug:...........i'm sure you are just so upset and frustrated and please know we are serious in our intent to help find susan........come here to vent and you will always find a shoulder :heartbeat:

hippy has been wonderful and is our heart in the field so to speak.......we bounce theories off of hippy and bam, they are put into action.......

again, welcome and please know we're here for you.......

:welcome::welcome6:



:rose: susan..........holding onto hope

 

[Zuri]

Hi zuri, I followed you over from COTH hoping that I could do something to help find Susan. She was my eventing coach when i was in pony club.



Dear hippyhippy, thanks from all of us who wish we could be there to help you search. You are looking for an amazing person. Susan is a bright and cheerful soul who encouraged many to reach their potential. The smile you see in all the photos of her is the expression of her natural state of being.

Hi Missing Susan and thank you for coming over here to post. I have been hoping that someone from COTH would come over here and help fill in some blanks. It really helps when those that know the missing person can weigh in. Thank you for doing so. Hippy has been an angel, searching as she has on her own time for hours at a time. I don't quite understand the silence from her family, but indeed it is perfectly within their right not to share.

Welcome!

 

[azure]

Hi zuri, I followed you over from COTH hoping that I could do something to help find Susan. She was my eventing coach when i was in pony club.



Dear hippyhippy, thanks from all of us who wish we could be there to help you search. You are looking for an amazing person. Susan is a bright and cheerful soul who encouraged many to reach their potential. The smile you see in all the photos of her is the expression of her natural state of being.

COTH and WS are the only two message boards I've ever participated in, so what a shock to see crossover!

So sad it's under these circumstances. I am a horse trainer and barn owner as well and I'm certain that Susan would never voluntarily leave her horses. It's hard enough just to take a short trip. I hope against the odds that Susan is found safely and soon.

 

[Sillybilly]

Many cases here, but some just really grab ya ... Susan's is one of them. Special thanks to hippy hippy for all your hard work that you are doing (literally going the extra mile and then some), and a big Welcome to Eqs and Missing Susan who know and love Susan personally and wish to see resolution in her case. And thank you to all WSers who are here truly caring about this lovely lady.

:welcome: :tyou:

 

[hippy hippy]

Hello I have just returned from picking my son up from university so for the rest of this week, which is a vacation week for me so longer days out, I will have a search buddy and two dogs again. The collie has recovered from her op and back on her feet. All systems go. My son had no idea about any of this story (stuck in Cambridge doing exams ) so I filled him in on our drive home. He has a fresh and very youthful, albeit intelligent, perspective on the story. Anyway he joins me tomorrow for a thorough search of a route I have only seen from the top of the Den (hill naive the resort) and we shall brave cows and stags together.

 

[hippy hippy]

I would also like to say Thank you to Missingsusan and Azure and Zuri and Eqs for coming on board. We are all doing our very best to find answers for you and all Susan's friends and of course her dear family.

 

[Missing Susan]

Thank you all for the welcome and well wishes!

I had a hard time finding words of condolence and feel uncomfortable asking for detailed information from the family. I have faith that the family and police worked every lead and angle to try to find Susan.

I would, however, like to find someone close who could coordinate with hippyhippy. If the extended family has gone to the trouble of a psychic opinion, I'm sure that they would be overjoyed to work with somebody actually continuing to search for Susan.

 

[Missing Susan]

I would also like to say Thank you to Missingsusan and Azure and Zuri and Eqs for coming on board. We are all doing our very best to find answers for you and all Susan's friends and of course her dear family.

Your google map is most appreciated. I have a looked around in street view and have a couple of questions.

Regarding the last CCTV image of Susan? in her raincoat and hood. Is that CCTV at the intersection of Burns Brae and Crief Road? The image shows a curb and is described as being in front of the Moness Resort on Crief rd. There is a walking path at the edge of the resort along Burns Brae that dumps out onto Crief Rd. It looks like Susan took a left and is heading up the hill away from town. 7:45

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-32934749

Then this story says she might have been seen at the gatehouse nursery 15 minutes later. Its 1.8 miles away and all uphill in the rain, right? She is walking against traffic in the rain, my guess is that gravel Croftness farm road would be a more inviting route for wandering around instead of the paved Crief road.

Also, the area you have been walking is accessed off the gravel road with gates just past the Nursery as you head towards Crief from Aberfeldy? I see a bunch of open pastures, stone walls and forested areas, traversed by clearcut powerlines. If it is dark, you cant actually see Aberfeldy from the Nursery as its obscured by a hill, right?

Do you have a GPS or smart phone app to keep track of where you have searched? It also could help you find your way if you get caught in a deluge again. Get your son to get you up to speed on such things if you aren't already.
I'm a map person too but the technology is too good to pass up and most of it is free.

OK, thats more than a "couple of questions" but all i can do from the United States is to look around virtually....

 

[hippy hippy]

Hi Missing Susan
Thank you for your questions. I was just heading out to begin today's track so I shall answer just briefly now, then in more detail when I return home. And today I will have my sons smartphone and smart brain with me...
I have been all over the resort trying to locate CCTV cameras and could only find one at the main road entrance which is where I presume the image was taken. However this image of Susan finds her definitely on the resort complex road and NOT on Crieff road as is reported. I find this odd because I cannot tell which direction she is walking. There must be further video of her exiting but police scotland perhaps showed this image because it gave the best shot of what she was wearing??? Can't fathom it.

 

[hippy hippy]

Next, if she was spotted twice on Crieff road, once by witnesses plural at garden centre then most likely that is where she was. The CCTV image states "about" 7:45 and the witnesses at garden centre reported "about 8pm". I doubt they would have checked their watches when they saw her because then it was irrelevant so it would be an estimated time of when they were driving past. And I assume they too were in a car, as really no one ever walks that road, too risky.
Yes a hill obscures the view of the resort from the track I've been searching, but so long as you are heading downhill, then you know you will reach the town. Also the hill only a secures the view from certain part. The track iam doing today follows an old stone wall over open moorland to a stunning viewpoint then down to just above the resort. I have been wary of this track because of stags and sometimes cattle at the bottom of the hill between there and the lower Crieff road by the resort. But will attempt it today

 

[hippy hippy]

Now re the gravel croftness farm road opposite the resort, I have approached that but was stopped by a Beware of the Bull gate so decided to do my searches in that area approaching from my garden centre track. The croftness farm track is the markers walking trail to the Dun, the hill that I mention several times up thread. I really have searched all around very well but if you want I can go back and look some more, especially at the steep ridges.
One more thing quickly....if she had gone off road at the garden centre and headed back down hill to her lodge she would have made it back in daylight with still plenty of time before dark so she would only be wandering around in full darkness from 10 pm and then it gets light again at 5 so as my son pointed out she could have slept curled up under thick trees (warmer and drier) and started walking again at 5 am and made it home. He believes she was injured because that's the only reason you would not get up and head home in daylight. I hadn't thought of this but tend to agree

 

[Missing Susan]

Hi Missing Susan
Thank you for your questions. I was just heading out to begin today's track so I shall answer just briefly now, then in more detail when I return home. And today I will have my sons smartphone and smart brain with me...
I have been all over the resort trying to locate CCTV cameras and could only find one at the main road entrance which is where I presume the image was taken. However this image of Susan finds her definitely on the resort complex road and NOT on Crieff road as is reported. I find this odd because I cannot tell which direction she is walking. There must be further video of her exiting but police scotland perhaps showed this image because it gave the best shot of what she was wearing??? Can't fathom it.

Yes the CCTV image shows a curbed road, patched asphalt and a black lamp post. Crieff rd isnt curbed at the entrance of Moness Resort.

However, at the resort's rear service entrance onto Moness Cres, I find a curbed road lined with lamp posts, patched pavement and a bit of white road paint lining the route. The Street view images of that spot actually shows a woman walking her dog out of the Resort towards Moness Cres.

It looks possible that Susan headed out the back gate of the resort, turned left on Moness Cres (downhill with traffic) towards town or other nearby walking path.

 

[hippy hippy]

Missing Susan I have just returned with my son, no news, but it was good to cross off another route down to town overland.
I agree that the CCTV image is definitely taken on the resort, so do you agree that the full CCTV video that the police have seen, shows here eventually stepping onto the Crieff road and that is why they mention it? I can't believe they would say Crieff road when in fact the CCTV is of her heading onto Moness Crecent. I can go back to the resort this afternoon and walk around again. I did already search from that back gate, a smokers corner for the staff,

 

[hippy hippy]

Apparently the local press are planning to investigate further this difference in time of her last sighting and perhaps they can also discover where she was last seen by the family and what time the family reported her missing and what the family though she was wearing as opposed to that CCTV shows her wearing. We would also like to learn why the police state that the CCTV image is of her on Crieff road when in fact that is untrue. So I hope if The Courier reporters are reading this, please try to get to the bottoms of these vital questions. Thank you

Heading back up to the resort to answer some Missing Susan questions...

 

[hippy hippy]

Just got back from Moness and walked all over the place again, little daschhund trotting ahead. The CCTV image is most definitely nowhere on Crieff road, so I am not going insane after all. Cannot understand why we have been mislead by this. I only found one camera and that is at the door of the main hotel/reception area. I could not find where that image was taken.
Missing Susan: your google street view image is out of date. There is now a high wooden fence at the back of the resort with a small door to allow you out to the town. Always staff here, at least each time I have been, because they can't smoke on the resort. And again, I couldn't match the CCTV with this back gate either.

 

[pinklilies]

Just got back from Moness and walked all over the place again, little daschhund trotting ahead. The CCTV image is most definitely nowhere on Crieff road, so I am not going insane after all. Cannot understand why we have been mislead by this. I only found one camera and that is at the door of the main hotel/reception area. I could not find where that image was taken.
Missing Susan: your google street view image is out of date. There is now a high wooden fence at the back of the resort with a small door to allow you out to the town. Always staff here, at least each time I have been, because they can't smoke on the resort. And again, I couldn't match the CCTV with this back gate either.

You're not going insane HHippy, you're amazing doing all that searching.
I've been up and down, via Streetview, Creith Road and Old Creith Road even (just on the off chance) but I cannot find where that cctv image was taken.

The nearest match to that image is where MSusan suggests but it's not quite right. I don't know if it's a telegraph post or tree on the cctv but it's not there on Moness Cresent. It's baffling for sure.

 

[Portabella]

Just curious, but has it been confirmed that the time stamp on the CCTV is accurate? Also, speaking of the rain the evening she disappeared ... Was it raining all evening, as in at Six Thirty when she was reported to have last been seen, or did it start to chuck down a bit later? I have reason for asking..

 

[Purplepixii]

It's entirely possible that the cctv camera is on someone's private property - and they're not always easy to spot. All I can see in reference to it is that it is "outside of the resort" which is vague to say the least!

Interesting to note a US Senator is asking to be kept informed of developments.

 

[hippy hippy]

Just curious, but has it been confirmed that the time stamp on the CCTV is accurate? Also, speaking of the rain the evening she disappeared ... Was it raining all evening, as in at Six Thirty when she was reported to have last been seen, or did it start to chuck down a bit later? I have reason for asking..

Hi Portabella
How do you go about checking past weather reports online? I've tried everything! I also want to know exact time of sundown.