My Esther wouldn’t just vanish – someone else must be involved
50 days since Oxford graduate disappeared, bereft partner says:
THE partner of a British hiker who vanished in the Pyrenees 50 days ago believes the most likely explanation is that she was snatched by someone armed with a weapon.
Speaking at length for the first ti me about Esther Dingley’s disappearance, Dan Colegate dismissed suggestions she voluntarily chose to walk off somewhere and not return.
And he rubbished fears for her mental state or theories that she could have been unhappy in their relationship.
While accepting she might have suffered a tragic accident and fallen to her death, Mr Colegate said he leans more towards the possibility that someone else was involved.
His comments come 50 days after Miss Dingley, 37, disappeared while on a solo hiking trip away from her long-term partner and travelling companion. The Oxford graduates had spent six years journeying around Europe in a camper van.
She sent Mr Colegate, her partner of 18 years, a smiling selfie from a mountain peak at 4pm on Sunday, November 22. But he raised the alarm when she failed to turn up three days later. Despite a massive search operation, no clue to her whereabouts has been found.
Initially she was assumed to have been involved in an accident on the way down from the Pic de Sauvegarde mountain on the France-Spain border. But search teams failed to find any trace of Miss Dingley before snow fell.
Yesterday Mr Colegate said: ‘The pain of her disappearance is excruciating – but even that pales into insignificance against the pain of not knowing. It’s crippling.
‘The nightmares, the constant questioning, the helplessness. Every aspect of my life and the future I dream of includes Esther.’ The lack of obvious answers has prompted speculation as to what might have happened.
A 23-page dossier of the mystery, compiled by Mr Colegate, 38, has now been released by LBT Global, the missing persons charity supporting him.
The analysis, with photographs and details about Miss Dingley’s movements, gives three possible theories.
The first – an accident – remains possible, but there are few places where someone can fall off the trail and become ‘instantly incapacitated and invisible instantly’. Another possibility, voluntary disappearance, would be totally out of character and she had ‘no motive or means to do so’.
Nor has she accessed funds, and there have been no reported sightings of her.
The final theory, that someone else was involved, remains possible. Someone with a weapon could have forced the lone female hiker into a vehicle, although there is no physical evidence and France was in lockdown at the time.
Mr Colegate is as perplexed as the police as to why no clue has been found and fears someone could have snatched her from a mountain path.
‘I accept Esther may have had an accident. But so much about that doesn’t make sense,’ he told the Sunday Mirror. ‘Why couldn’t they find her? Or even a single trace of her equipment?
‘The fact no trace was found – and given the specifics of the weather, terrain and location – I lean toward somebody else being involved, even though that raises its own questions.
‘Another person being involved is the only other viable alternative.’
The couple, who originally met as students at Oxford University, made the l i fe - changing decision to leave home and head to Europe after Mr Colegate, a business development manager, suffered a post-surgical infection and nearly died.
Miss Dingley, who ran her own personal training firm, had suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, but they wrote about how a life of hiking and biking had transformed their quality of life.
They have lived off a combination of savings, rental income from a UK home and money earned doing odd jobs during their years of travel in a camper van, accompanied by their five dogs.
‘The pain is excruciating’