Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020 #5

Interesting.... it does sound as if Esther felt this need to get away. Whether it was just relationship issues or this need for 'outdoors adventure / freedom' - we just dont know. But the conversation she had with Laura - that Laura subsequently reported to the police 'Esther said she and Dan were taking a break and she didn’t know if they were going to get back together.' does seem to suggest that Esther left as par of this 'break'. It doesn't necessarily mean they left on bad terms but the relationship had hit a turning point.

Missing hiker Esther Dingley 'had problems in her love life' Brit cops hear as they join search for her (thesun.co.uk)

DC may have thought it would pass over and Esther would be back and all would be well. Esther , on the other hand, may have been more troubled and seriously considering the relationship was over. I am theorising that DC thinks Esther will be back and it will all blow over but as time goes by and Esther keeps extending her trip, he gets worried / agitated and sends more and more messages.... Esther has to keep reassuring him but sincerely doesn't know what to do. She was crying after 3 days of house sitting and quoting those lyrics - she's in turmoil and it seems she is not ready to return.. then she disappears.

 

BBM
"She was crying after 3 days of house sitting and quoting those lyrics - she's in turmoil and it seems she is not ready to return.. then she disappears."
@PeggyHenry, you offer a pithy synopsis of a chapter in Esther's life, perhaps her last chapter – poignant and chilling.

 

@Puzzles i didn’t intend it to be that way really ! But, as usual, reading StMarysMead’s valuable and insightful post regarding the lead up to her going away on the 22nd October has, for me, set a new context for the scenario. Just the fact that when Esther left, she only travelled for around an hour before her first overnight stop ( as part of a 3.5 hr journey). Seems like she had to get her head together, rather than get well on her way. Two days before she left she was agonising over her feelings.
Before reading that, I had in my head a girl going off into the mountains, enthusiastic for an outdoor adventure. Now I don’t.

 

Actually, correcting myself, Dan says her first destination was Arreau. That’s a two hour complete drive from the farmhouse.

1 hr 57 min (132.5 km) via D939

Yet she leaves the farmhouse on the 22nd to drive one hour of a two hour trip...to spend a night in a parking lot only one hour from home.

PeggyHenry, like you, I no longer see the happy traveler setting off for her solo adventure. IMO, someone, only 8 days home from a 80 day trip, has reached a breaking point with her situation.

 

Very interesting. Samatan is not actually on a direct route between Larroque and Arreau. Either she got lost or couldn't decide where she was going and then just didn't want to drive any more. Which surely points to state-of-mind issues. Coupled with other evidence, that would support the theory of a relationship break-up. Which would support the suicide theory. Or one other theory, as yet undiscussed.

 

Snipped respectfully, for focus:
BBM

Hi @stmarysmead, in response to your first sentence of "Another insignificant detail that I’ve tossed around in my mind."– I don't think what you go on to outline in your post is an insignificant detail.

IMO, Esther's willingness to reveal her inner pain on SM is striking – especially where she describes "crying over song lyrics, ‘stretched out like a rubber band.” – and deserves our attention as a possible public cry for help.

No matter how stoic one's persona presents to the outer world, none of us is immune to the affects our mental states have on our actions, either conscious or unconscious.

From what we've learned through the dedicated work of our sleuths here, IMO both Esther and Dan had reasonable cause to be emotionally fragile during the time leading up to Esther's last known communications.

 

I bet she was missing her dogs too.

 

Oh, okay - I get it. Yes, lots of times hikers hitch rides back to their car/camp. I've done it, although it was a long time ago.

That's a long hike. I do wonder if ED headed back down to the road, rather than onward into the mountains.

Was there ever any word regarding the location of Esther's passport?

I think the theory that she is voluntarily gone...is weak, but certainly not off the table. Stranger things have happened. I do believe that the case was publicized well enough that if she took a series of rides to get somewhere far from the Pyrenées, someone would have come forward. But, since her pictures didn't get into the media until several days after her last contact with DC, it's possible she could be far away...but she'd almost have to be living homeless or with a new friend.

 

100 days missing.

 

Below is the link to the 2nd post from the very first thread opened for Esther Dingley. Re-reading the BBC article published 7 days before she was reported missing is rather uncanny...considering we are being reminded, 100 days have now passed and Esther is still missing. It's worth the re-read IMHO.
(click on the BBC article in the post at the link below)

Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020

 

More articles in Mirror etc. DC going back to search ASAP but adamant Esther is victim of foul play.
Mum of missing hiker Esther Dingley says every day is hell 100 days into search

 

one thought I keep having is that it is possible that Esther was angry / distraught/ unhappy that the BBC article was published on 22nd. IMO she knew relationship was not in good state and to have this article go out to everyone portraying an idyllic lifestyle would not have sat comfortably with her.
I think it may have been done against her will. Just a theory though. As a sensitive soul who always does ‘the right thing’ this would have been huge. Is the right thing to go back and live out the article or is that not bearable.. either way it could push her into something reckless perhaps.

 

I understand that, to sell books, it’s sometimes necessary to romanticize the books’ subjects. But, PeggyHenry touches on an aspect of this new foray into marketing that might have contributed to Esther’s distress. There’s a lot of phoniness required from both of them in those last weeks as this marketing surge is underway. Esther seems like such a genuine, heart-on-her-sleeve person. IMO being part of that phoniness would not have been easy for her.

The articles and the last posts on Esther and Dan FB depict their fun life with all those dogs...but, truth is, the dogs were gone. They aren’t back with Dan at the farmhouse. ‘For one reason or another’ Esther said previously...wistfully...online, she no longer has the dogs.

But for the purposes of selling books that extol their love for these dogs, the truth is unconvenient.

“One campervan, two people and five dogs, and there are no plans to end the adventure, no matter how much they miss friends, family and the weekend trips they used to take to the beaches of Northumberland and hills of the Lake District.”... so states the BBC article posted on that last day when Esther disappeared.

They’d already gotten rid of the dogs “for one reason or another.”

Esther joined in the BBC interview by video call...but suppose the witness and the detective are correct that the relationship was in trouble. IMO, having to pretend otherwise in order to sell those books might have made her feel very trapped. Trapped in a relationship she wanted to leave by the combination of the pressures of their shared business life and of his emotional needs of her. If she left him then, it could undermine the sale of the books. It would hurt him emotionally and financially. Esther seems to have parents with comfortable means to fall back on if needed...but Dan? So what alternatives might appeal to her? Might seem to her the only way out?

Esther seems like such a genuine person. Now IMO she had to present a fake persona for a marketing surge. If she returned home, there surely would be more. IMO, that probably contributed to her “extensions.”

The new articles don’t add much. If Dan believes her to be alive and captive somewhere, I’m not sure why he’s waiting now to search the mountains in the Spring. That’s a recovery operation. It doesn’t make sense.

 

Why do the Nov 8 and Nov 12 FB posts by Esther show Sundsvall Sweden for the location status by FB? I’m not suggesting she flew up to Sweden but how does that occur?

 

Hi PeggyHenry... just reposting with another live link as the one you posted was past it's prime.
'Every day has been hell since my beloved daughter vanished on a solo trek'

 

From the BBC article: "...In the on-screen box beside Dan, Esther, who is broadcasting live from the pair's parked-up campervan, nods. 'People say every cloud has a silver lining but when you're in the cloud it does not look like it,' she says..."

BBM

We know the BBC article was published on Nov. 22, the day Esther disappeared.

But I can't figure out when the video call to include Esther was recorded. Was it pre-recorded? And if so, when? And where was the "campervan parked-up" at that time?
Or was the BBC speaking with Esther on Nov. 22?

When was the BBC speaking to Esther, and where was she when the recording was made, at what date, and time?
Do we know the answer to these questions?



Van life: Durham couple's six years on the road (and counting)

 

Respectfully snipped for focus and BBM
IIRC, Esther's aunt or mother believe she was abducted, but perhaps Dan believes someone killed her on the mountain, and he wants to bring her body home.

 

Was this first shown on BBC TV...and that’s why the “broadcasting live” term is used?And then it was repurposed as an online/print story?

 

Just to give some context here the silver lining comment was made when they were discussing the time Dan nearly died.

BBM "In the on-screen box beside Dan, Esther, who is broadcasting live from the pair's parked-up campervan,"

It would seem from that to me that it was not something recorded/pre-recorded as such but an interview done as a 3 way video call - DC in Gascony, ED in campervan and BBC interviewer (presumably) in the UK.

ETA: To be clear, I don't think this was recorded for TV at all, just an interview done via video link at some date prior to 22nd Nov (I'd imagine there's a bit of lead time before the BBC publishes interviews like this) but obviously after she had started the latest trip. I may be be wrong but think the term "broadcasting live" is confusing the issue and not intended to imply TV.

 

I don't know the answer to that, stmarysmead.
Surely Esther wasn't recorded live on the 22nd? Which would mean she was in the camper on the 22nd, as BBC states that's where she was during the video call. I'd think they'd need time to write the article, and so wouldn't have been able to construct and publish it the same day as the recording.

BBC tells us Dan was at the farmhouse and Esther was in the camper. She left on Oct. 22 and the article was published on Nov. 22. So she was recorded sometime during that month. We've discussed her possible reactions to public exposure on Nov. 22. But perhaps speaking live to the BBC about her life with Dan disturbed her and contributed to her mental state and/or actions prior to the 22nd.