Esther Dingley last spoke to her boyfriend Dan Colegate via WhatsApp last Sunday, when she was atop Pic de Sauvegarde on the France-Spain border
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The family of missing British hiker Esther Dingley fears she may have been kidnapped, as bad weather delays the searches for her on the Pyrenees mountain range.
Ms Dingley, 37, was reported missing by her partner, Dan Colegate, after failing to return from a solo walking trek in the Pyrenees on November 25.
In the two weeks since, what was initially a mountain rescue search by both French and Spanish authorities on the peaks has turned into a missing persons case in which worries are growing she may have been abducted.
"I feel like I’m living a nightmare," her aunt Elizabeth Wolsey Morgan said. "Her father Henry is broken. She’s his only daughter. He’s in pieces."
Ms Wolsey, 68, said if her niece had had an accident "they would probably have found her" and she was beginning to wonder if she had "been kidnapped."
The mystery about Ms Dingley’s last days on the Pic de Sauvegarde, where she was last seen and sent a photo to her partner on November 22, has deepened as new witnesses come forward.
A mountain refuge manager said the hiker seemed in good spirits days before she disappeared. Chema Grau, 60, said the 37-year-old paid £15.50 to stay at the Angel Orus Refuge which is 7,000ft in the Pyrenees on November 17 after her plans to camp were thwarted by snow.
Chema Grau, 60, said the Ms Dingley paid to stay at the Angel Orus Refuge which is 7,000ft in the Pyrenees on November 17 after her plans to camp were thwarted by snow
Credit: ASA/GC/SM /Social Media
“She seemed in very good spirits and very happy and was quite obviously relaxed and enjoying the mountains. At one point I lent her a charger – she spent a long time on her mobile,” said Mr Grau.
“There was nothing untoward about her behaviour. It’s very, very strange what’s happened.”
The Spanish Civil Guard leading the investigation said despite the heavy snow which has halted the week-long search involving helicopters, dogs and experts from elite mountain rescue units, they would not rule out resuming a smaller scale hunt for Ms Dingley.
“For reasons of heavy snowfall we cannot search as we did during the first few days but we cannot rule out another search at the moment. All lines of investigation are open at the moment,” a spokeswoman said.
Investigators are now closely examining the images she posted on social media in the hours before she disappeared, including looking at her sunglasses to determine her movements, according to The Sun.
One of the police officers leading the French side of the investigation also said her boyfriend Mr Colegate had been interviewed by both the Gendarmerie in France and the Guardia Civil in Spain. There is no suggestion he is suspected of any wrongdoing.
French investigators have however rejected the theory that Esther may have been abducted. “It’s impossible to be kidnapped on the mountain. You’re not going to hide her in a rucksack. There would have to be a camping car or something," said captain Jean-Marc Bordinaro, leading the operations for the French gendarmerie.
The Angel Orus Refuge where Ms Dingley stayed on November 17
Credit: ASA/GC/SM /Social Media
Spanish police have still to track down a mystery ‘fellow hiker’ who gave Ms Dingley a lift on November 19, three days before she vanished.
Mart Vigo del Arco, a Spanish Olympic cross country skier, said that around 3pm on November 22, the last day Ms Dingley was heard of, he saw an Englishwoman climbing up a mountain.
The skier, who was descending the Pic de Sauvegarde mountain with his girlfriend, said he thought it was late in the day to be climbing up the mountain.
“She was climbing up, we were on the descent, she was very heavily loaded with a very big backpack,” he told La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper. They stopped for a chat.
“She asked us if we had a piece of fruit or something fresh, but we did not have anything. She carried on up.”
An hour after her encounter with the Spanish skier, Ms Dingley reached the 8,983ft summit from where just before 4pm, she sent a selfie to Mr Colegate, her partner of 18 years. She has not been seen since.
Mr Colegate, 38, a former business development manager who has been touring Europe with Ms Dingley for the past six years in a campervan, was house-sitting at the French village of Arreau in the Haute-Pyrenees, while Ms Dingley hiked through the Pyrenees on her own for a month.
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