UK - Anthony Parsons, 63, charity cyclist, found deceased, Argyll, Scotland, 29 Sept 2017 *Arrests*

[touch]

The turn off onto the B8074 is 0.6 miles after the hotel, so depending on the accuracy of the lorry driver sighting of him on the A82 "about half a mile" after the hotel, he could possibly have taken that turn off.

The BBC article quotes the Police Inspector as saying:
"We have traced his movements from Fort William, through to Glen Coe, through to the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, and then an unconfirmed sighting about a half mile south of the hotel from another lorry driver."

I havn't noticed a lorry driver being mentioned before? For this to be "another" lorry driver presumably means that the only other witness sighting (at the hotel) was also from a lorry driver? Although that doesn't actually change anything as it could have been a lorry driver stopped and saw him inside the hotel or driving past and saw him cycling on the road at the time.

 

[Taskforce88]

Yep, I thought that was strange as well, I had to read the article again thinking I had missed another lorry driver being mentioned.

The B8704 is another possible route that would have taken Tony down Glen Orchy.

I am traveling through that way to Glen Coe tomorrow.

 

[jeangenie]

It doesn't seem it has been a year!

 

[touch]

I spotted another news report here:
Police Scotland renew appeal to find missing cyclist on first anniversary of disappearance
A quote from it:
"the 64-year-old planned to spend the weekend riding the 104-mile trip home for charity"
I havn't seen it mentioned anywhere else that he planned to "spend the weekend riding". Possibly just the language they've used and not factual (this is a website for cycling news, race results, etc rather than a traditional journalistic source) but I wonder if there's more to it?
Did he plan to stop somewhere overnight? (doesnt look like he has enough kit on his bike for camping)
Or did he plan to keep riding through the night but was aware that it would take him more than a day to complete?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

It was definitely painted as a kind of spur of the moment thing, initially. If it was a fundraiser, surely he'd have specified a route? That said, lorries passing in the dark would make anyone re-think and take an off-road diversion.

More to the point, you don't do a charity thing on the spur of the moment because it takes time to get people to sponsor you or to sign them up in some way in terms of donations.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

"the 64-year-old planned to spend the weekend riding the 104-mile trip home for charity"
I havn't seen it mentioned anywhere else that he planned to "spend the weekend riding". Possibly just the language they've used and not factual (this is a website for cycling news, race results, etc rather than a traditional journalistic source) but I wonder if there's more to it?
Did he plan to stop somewhere overnight? (doesnt look like he has enough kit on his bike for camping)
Or did he plan to keep riding through the night but was aware that it would take him more than a day to complete?

100+ miles is not a distance an unfit or inexperienced cyclist could do in a single day. I'd say it would be tough enough to do in 2 days because you'd be very saddle sore at the end of day 1. So either Tony was even less well prepared and less experienced than we have been led to believe or he really was planning to take several days over it. Given the terrain and his age, it might even be a 3 day ride.

 

[Taskforce88]

If this was intended to be a 2 or 3-day ride he must have intended to stay somewhere. Perhaps he did turn down the road to the Auch Estate halfway between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum. The estate is relatively well-signed with a reasonably wide road end on the A82.

 

[silverjug]

If this was intended to be a 2 or 3-day ride he must have intended to stay somewhere. Perhaps he did turn down the road to the Auch Estate halfway between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum. The estate is relatively well-signed with a reasonably wide road end on the A82.

Surely you would leave a copy of the route you intended to take with someone, not just go off unless you did intend to disappear?

 

[JustJo]

And why cycle so late at night? I don't understand

 

[Taskforce88]

Surely you would leave a copy of the route you intended to take with someone, not just go off unless you did intend to disappear?

It was reported early in the investigation that he spoke about the route with a friend, but nothing more was ever said.

 

[silverjug]

It was reported early in the investigation that he spoke about the route with a friend, but nothing more was ever said.

Thanks must have missed that. I live in Somerset where there are lots of cyclists, (actually pass by my door in the village that I live) and they are so very well prepared that I find this so strange.

 

[ssl]

Hi all, I've followed Tony's disappearance with great interest since I regularly visit the area. I read this thread and found a lot of insightful discussion. I wrote a blog post about it summarising the story so far and my thoughts on Tony's whereabouts. There is not any new information other than a video from my webcam in my cottage in the area which shows the weather near to Bridge of Orchy.

 

[Taskforce88]

Hi all, I've followed Tony's disappearance with great interest since I regularly visit the area. I read this thread and found a lot of insightful discussion. I wrote a blog post about it summarising the story so far and my thoughts on Tony's whereabouts. There is not any new information other than a video from my webcam in my cottage in the area which shows the weather near to Bridge of Orchy.

Excellent blog post!

 

[pjm06]

I spotted another news report here:
Police Scotland renew appeal to find missing cyclist on first anniversary of disappearance
A quote from it:
"the 64-year-old planned to spend the weekend riding the 104-mile trip home for charity"
I havn't seen it mentioned anywhere else that he planned to "spend the weekend riding". Possibly just the language they've used and not factual (this is a website for cycling news, race results, etc rather than a traditional journalistic source) but I wonder if there's more to it?
Did he plan to stop somewhere overnight? (doesnt look like he has enough kit on his bike for camping)
Or did he plan to keep riding through the night but was aware that it would take him more than a day to complete?

I wouldn't read much into it, road.cc's article are quite often poor in their use of language. It's also very unlikely that they're going off anything other than the press release. That said it would explain why the alarm wasn't raised with the police for a good couple of days after he set off.

Hi all, I've followed Tony's disappearance with great interest since I regularly visit the area. I read this thread and found a lot of insightful discussion. I wrote a blog post about it summarising the story so far and my thoughts on Tony's whereabouts. There is not any new information other than a video from my webcam in my cottage in the area which shows the weather near to Bridge of Orchy.

Interesting post, a couple of comments:

• Green Welly Stop CCTV - we can rule out him passing on the A82, see the update written 27th October here (unless the camera only activates when fueling starts).
• 7km/h - this is an interesting point. That's barely above walking pace. With 110km to go that would take another 15 hours. He must have known that it was time to give up. The language in the police releases is quite consistent about the sighting at Orchy " he was seen at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. He then headed south". Note "seen at" rather than passing, which supports your suggestion that he stopped there.
• Lack of sightings - I agree that this is strange, especially given the business of the road and media coverage of his disappearance.

 

[ssl]

Interesting post, a couple of comments:

• Green Welly Stop CCTV - we can rule out him passing on the A82, see the update written 27th October here (unless the camera only activates when fueling starts).

I didn't notice the camera picture before - very interesting! You would easily see a cyclist on this video feed if indeed it is constantly filming.

BTW, I posted this to reddit earlier and there have been a lot of interesting comments made there too.

 

[touch]

• 7km/h - this is an interesting point. That's barely above walking pace. With 110km to go that would take another 15 hours. He must have known that it was time to give up. The language in the police releases is quite consistent about the sighting at Orchy " he was seen at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. He then headed south". Note "seen at" rather than passing, which supports your suggestion that he stopped there.

7km is his average speed between glencoe village and bridge of orchy hotel. Judging by the average speed from ft william to glencoe, he didn't stop on that section so will be getting hungry. The king's house hotel would have been an option to stop for food or the cafe at glencoe ski centre. There's also a burger van frequently parked in a large layby on the A82 just north of loch Tulla. Presumably, he also had some food with him in his backpack which he could have stopped to eat at any time. I think it's more likely that his average speed is lower due to stopping rather than actually cycling at that speed.

• Lack of sightings - I agree that this is strange, especially given the business of the road and media coverage of his disappearance.

I wonder if there are possibly more witnesses who have seen him on the road that we havn't been told about. I guess it's not really all that useful for the police to release that info. The last known sighting is the only significant one really (as well as the couple of cctv images along the way).

 

[ssl]

The king's house hotel would have been an option to stop for food or the cafe at glencoe ski centre. There's also a burger van frequently parked in a large layby on the A82 just north of loch Tulla. Presumably, he also had some food with him in his backpack which he could have stopped to eat at any time. I think it's more likely that his average speed is lower due to stopping rather than actually cycling at that speed

The King's House Hotel was I believe closed for refurbishment (and still is). I don't know about the burger van nor Ski Centre, but would they have been open when he would have been passing (perhaps 9, 10 pm at night)?

I wonder if there are possibly more witnesses who have seen him on the road that we havn't been told about. I guess it's not really all that useful for the police to release that info. The last known sighting is the only significant one really (as well as the couple of cctv images along the way).

I bet most drivers in the area were tourists. They may not have even seen the news about him being missing - it probably only made the front page of the BBC News website in Scotland. The police were stopping traffic a couple of Fridays afterwards, which would give them the chance to ask regular travellers such as truck drivers about it. Presumably this didn't yield anything useful, except the unconfirmed sighting of Parsons half a mile south of Bridge of Orchy.

 

[Taskforce88]

The Kings House Hotel was closed for refurbishment at the time of the disappearance. I went down there a just over a month after Tony went missing and half of the building was knocked down. I was up against last week and it is still closed, although nearing completion.

It is interesting that the unconfirmed sighting after Bridge of Orchy was only mentioned on the one year anniversary. It is also interesting that the police have never explained the 'confirmed' sighting at the hotel. It wasn't CCTV otherwise, they would have shown it, but they have never mentioned if anyone spoke to Tony or if someone saw him. I found that quite strange and often wondered if it was a false report.

The burger van in the layby isn't there all the time and I doubt it would be open after 9 if it was. I think I have only seen it perhaps twice in the last ten times I have passed.

I'm not sure about the cafe at the ski centre but was there not another unconfirmed sighting near there? That made me wonder if he had cycled up that way to join the West Highland Way over to Bridge of Orchy.

The more information the police can release the more it would help the investigation. Presumably, they have very little to say.

IMO its safe to say Tony is not between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum.

 

[touch]

The Kings House Hotel was closed for refurbishment at the time of the disappearance.

Yes, you're right. It looks like the cafe at the ski centre is open until 8:30pm so might be possible for a food stop. These were just examples of places he might have stopped anyway. He would surely have had some food in his backpack so could have stopped for a break and some food anywhere along the route. I still think that it's likely he had a couple of stops which reduced his average speed rather than actually cycling at 7kph.

I'm not sure about the cafe at the ski centre but was there not another unconfirmed sighting near there? That made me wonder if he had cycled up that way to join the West Highland Way over to Bridge of Orchy.

Anybody who knows the area would use the West Highland Way route here. The WHW from Ft William to Glencoe is steep and rough, not very pleasant for cycling on but from Glencoe to Bridge of Orchy the WHW path is excellent and easy riding.
There's no evidence to rule this out - the WHW crosses the A82 at the hotel so he could have taken either route to get there.

Lots of people are asking if he had lights with him (on here and the Reddit link posted earlier). I think it's safe to assume that he did have lights. Sunset was around 7pm and with no street lights on the A82, he would have been riding in full darkness for at least 3.5 hours to have reached the hotel by 11:30pm. It just wouldn't be possible to do that without lights.

Following on from that, what would he have done if his light had suddenly died in the middle of nowhere? He'd have to try and get off the road for a start. Then what? Try to walk to Tyndrum or back to Bridge of Orchy with almost zero visibility? Or try and find somewhere to rest until sunrise? Maybe try to blindly walk towards the nearest light source? (houses at Auch?)

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Excellent blog post!

It is indeed. Very thorough and very well reasoned.