Missing hiker’s life ‘was not so happy’
Revelation by police chief leading hunt as Briton’s boyfriend is questioned by French officers for third time
FreNCH police seeking a British hiker have spoken to her partner for a third time – and said the couple’s life was less happy than it had appeared.
The officer leading the search for esther Dingley, who vanished more than a fortnight ago in the Pyrenees, stressed however that Dan Colegate was a witness and not a suspect in the case.
Jean-marc Bordinaro added: ‘We interviewed Daniel Colegate at the farmhouse where he is living in the Gers department. We want to investigate all possibilities.
‘We do not rule out any line of inquiry. But it does not seem probable that esther suffered an accident, and it is not credible that she was eaten by a bear or that she has fallen into a lake.’
The police captain said the disappearance was either a voluntary decision or the result of someone else’s actions.
He added: ‘We went to see mr Colegate so that we could go through social media with him – messages, etc. It appears that their lives together were not as happy as the images posted on social media suggest.
‘However I would like to stress that we
‘Could have fallen into a lake’
interviewed mr Colegate as a witness not as a suspect.’
extensive searches have failed to find miss Dingley, 37, after she vanished trekking alone on France’s mountainous border with Spain.
It has also been suggested the experienced mountaineer fell and sank in one of many high-altitude lakes, or was lost in forest since covered in snow.
The couple, who met at oxford University, have been travelling europe and its peaks by camper van since 2014.
The vehicle is now being examined for clues in a police pound in Benasque, Spain. It was parked near the spot where miss Dingley started her trek.
Her 38-year-old boyfriend had stayed behind with their five dogs at their French address three hours away. The couple had written online of how they enjoyed having time apart.
After mr Colegate almost died in hospital they gave up their jobs and let out their home in Durham to fund their travels.
They have been writing in blogs and on Facebook of how they have found happiness on the road, and posted many picturesque images.
mr Colegate was not available for comment l ast night. A man believed to be his father said at the house: ‘We can’t talk, we’ve got the police here at the moment, nothing to say at all.’
Locals in Benasque said yesterday that miss Dingley had been seen buying chia seeds and doing yoga exercises next to her camper van.
An expert hiker, Antonio Ballarin, 70, has told of giving her a lift higher into the mountains to start her walk on November 21, a day before she last contacted mr Colegate.
He reported her missing three days later. mr Ballarin, who was with his grandson, said miss Dingley suggested she was planning to go all the way to Toulouse under her own steam – possibly by catching a train. This could explain why mountain searches have not found her.
He said she could have fallen into one of many lakes in the Pyrenees, which have since iced over, saying: ‘The water in those lakes is quite deep and not transparent at all in a lot of parts. She could have slipped and lost her footing and ended in the water. I doubt they will have sent divers into the lakes.
‘once you lose your footing and start falling down the mountains here, there’s nothing to stop you.’
on their website, the couple said it taken the serious health scare ‘to shock us into realising how fragile our lives are and that we needed a drastic change to discover what made us happy and find a more sustainable way of life’.
They headed to europe to pursue their love of cycling, hiking and climbing, living off savings, rental income and odd jobs.
They have lived in France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Liechtenstein.