Missing hiker did not run away, says boyfriend

THE boyfriend of missing hiker Esther Dingley has dismissed speculation that she may have vanished to continue a nomadic life.

It comes after a witness said Miss Dingley described herself as Dutch while hitching alone into the Pyrenees more than three weeks ago.

Miss Dingley, 37, and her boyfriend Dan Colegate, 38, who met at Oxford University, have been travelling around Europe in a camper van since 2014.

French police have suggested that the former boarding school girl was not as happy as her life appeared on the couple’s online travel blogs.

Captain Jean-Marc Bordinaro, who has doubted she had an

‘Continue her way of life’

accident at high altitude, said he believes her disappearance was either planned by her, or there was third- party involvement.

He said: ‘ Esther Dingley wanted t o continue her current way of life, journeys in a camper van and sporting activities including hiking, while Daniel Colegate seems a little tired of his nomadic life.

‘Did she want to go off on her own to live her life and organise her own disappearance? There is nothing enabling us to eliminate this working theory.’

Searches have now been abandoned due to deepening snow. Missing persons aid group Lucie Blackman Trust Global, which is representing Mr Colegate, dismissed the idea Esther could have planned her own disappearance.

Matthew Searle, chief executive of the trust, said: ‘There is no indication that Esther was seeking a new life.’