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

[Elainera]

He could have gotten entangled in a bike + rucksack straps + some underwater plants scenario.

IIRC it also depends on the temperatures whether a body floats. I think when it's very cold they might not float at all. (I might be wrong though, only vaguely remember something I once read.)

 

[MelmothTheLost]

He could have gotten entangled in a bike + rucksack straps + some underwater plants scenario.

IIRC it also depends on the temperatures whether a body floats. I think when it's very cold they might not float at all. (I might be wrong though, only vaguely remember something I once read.)

That's certainly feasible I think, if the conditions are conducive, though from looking at the satellite view there don't seem to be any places on his most likely route where he would have been cycling directly alongside the edge of a loch (there's usually at least a line or two of trees between the road and the water). There are a number of places where he'd have cycled close to the Rivers Fillan and Dochart but I can't see anywhere he'd have crossed either one.

One thing I did notice is that between the Glen Docart Holiday Park on the A85 and Lochearnhead, where the A84 leaves the A85, there is what appears to be a former railway line which looks as though it is sufficiently well surfaced to be used by walkers and cyclists. I wonder if that has been searched, because for a knackered cyclist a quiet route away from road traffic, and engineered to be free of gradients, would be perfect. It would be particularly useful to Tony because his most logical route home would see him take the A84 at Lochearnhead.

Any thoughts, Taskforce?

 

[Taskforce88]

If the sighting at Bridge of Orchy was correct then we can discount him falling into water between Glencoe and the hotel. There is a number of small lochs and lochans near to the road but you would still need to travel a number of meters to reach deep water, with the exception of the stretch of road passing loch Ba.

Passed Bridge of Orchy there really isnt any water close to the road, you would need to go out your way to reach it.

One thing I did notice is that between the Glen Docart Holiday Park on the A85 and Lochearnhead, where the A84 leaves the A85, there is what appears to be a former railway line which looks as though it is sufficiently well surfaced to be used by walkers and cyclists. I wonder if that has been searched, because for a knackered cyclist a quiet route away from road traffic, and engineered to be free of gradients, would be perfect. It would be particularly useful to Tony because his most logical route home would see him take the A84 at Lochearnhead.

I don't believe that route has been searched in any great detail but it would be an option, if he knew the area well. I have no idea what areas have been searched.

If he did manage to reach that area he would have been exhausted.

Have the police traced the vehicle from the Tyndrum petrol station CCTV? It was spotted at 0200 when Tony should have been in the area much earlier, midnight?

Was he having a break by the road side and fell asleep, possibly rolling down the steep side?

Its all very bizarre.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Have the police traced the vehicle from the Tyndrum petrol station CCTV? It was spotted at 0200 when Tony should have been in the area much earlier, midnight?

I've not seen anything new about the case in over a month. I would hope there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than there is on the surface.

 

[Taskforce88]

The police seem to have organised a couple of volunteer searches, one from Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum and another from Crianlarich to Tyndrum. These were carried out in the few weeks after his disappearance.

I cant find any info on where any others took place. And certainly no info on locations searched by police and SAR.

 

[Taskforce88]

As of 23 November the police have said they have no updates or further information.

A number of people asking what routes have been searched, not much reply.

Someone cycled at slow pace along the main road scanning the road sides.

A volunteer search took place the weekend of 14-15 Oct in and around Crianlarich, the weekend before the route north from there was searched. Someone asked 'how far south' was searched, nobody knew.

From open-source info I have gathered it seems up to 80 people including police, SAR and volunteers have 'thoroughly' searched the area from Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum and on to Crianlarich (main road, countryside, woodland) this includes the West Highland Way and the railway line. No info can be found regarding a search of Glen Orchy or the fast flowing River Orchy. There does not appear to be a search carried out north of the hotel.

An appeal for cars with dash-cams travelling that route was put out a number of weeks ago.

Within the last hour I have noticed a comment on Facebook that I found interesting, I wont quote directly but the guy who cycled the route noticed that halfway between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum the road 'pulls a cyclist' to the left - which is where the steep side I mentioned earlier is. Sharp curve on the road, you could go over the crash barrier.

 

[Taskforce88]

I always wonder why the police - in this case Police Scotland - never seem keen to give out information. Their response on Facebook to someone asking questions was:

"social media is for appeals not giving info, the family are kept up to date"

How can they expect people in a position to help actually help if they don't know the basics such as more details about the 'confirmed sighting' at the hotel.

The appeal for the driver of the car that was seen on CCTV - presumably the image quality was so poor they couldn't read the registration plate otherwise they could have looked up the owner?

Does that mean the CCTV might not have picked up a cyclist passing in the far dark during heavy rain?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

How can they expect people in a position to help actually help if they don't know the basics such as more details about the 'confirmed sighting' at the hotel.

Have you thought of posting that on the FB page?

TBH I've not heard or read much positive about Police Scotland since all the local forces were amalgamated into one national, much less accountable, body.

 

[Taskforce88]

Have you thought of posting that on the FB page?

TBH I've not heard or read much positive about Police Scotland since all the local forces were amalgamated into one national, much less accountable, body.

I was going to contact them as well as the SAR teams.

Its been one big disaster. I hope other forces in the UK don't view it as an option. Local knowledge seems to go first.

 

[Taskforce88]

Going on 8 weeks today I believe?

I have been crawling over up-to-date high-res satellite data of the area, a lot of forestry work going on that isn't all noticeable from the road. Lots of new roads for the forestry trucks being constructed.

I wonder if the trees and woodland areas were searched with dogs?

A cyclist on a cycle forum who knows the area said that he thinks he could have taken the old military road to get off the main road.

This is something I first though in the days and weeks after the news broke. Some parts are very rough however. The route over the Rannoch moor is littered with peat bogs, some I have almost went into myself. But we would need to discount the hotel sighting.

 

[Taskforce88]

Quote from a cyclist:

[FONT=&quot]I reckon he took the old miltary road that runs adjacent to the main road . it would be safer for him. 3/4 of the way along he saw a potential short cut that would take him back on to the main road. the short cut was a path that was too steep for him. unfortunately it led him directly down into the river[/FONT]

 

[Taskforce88]

So...

His intention is to cycle from Fort William back to his home in Tillicoultry, that journey by road is just over 100 miles.

He has to travel with his bike to get a train from Stirling to Glasgow and then get another train for the West Highland Line that will take him to Fort William. He gets the later train that doesn't get him to FW until late afternoon. This is far too late to begin a 100 mile cycle, by an inexperienced cyclist with all of the wrong gear.

First footage we have of him is at FW station on the platform after he has left the train. Next footage is him passing through Glencoe village as the darkness is setting in. Weather was light rain at this point.

He has had an easy enough start but after Glencoe its an arduous cycle through the Glen and up over the Rannoch moor with large lorries rumbling past - not the best road to be on in the dark with the rain.

Along the way he would have noticed a number of opportunities to come off the main road onto the old military road. Perhaps he is looking for accommodation - he may not have had money or card however.

Assuming he did make it over the moor, he is going to be tired, wet, cold and hungry but bizarrely he does not seek shelter at the Bridge of Orchy hotel or the bunkhouse next door. Even if they were full the hotel would not have turned him away from sitting in the lounge or hallway, or he could have used their phone.

He continues on his route but doesn't make it to Tyndrum.

The answer therefore lies on the 7 mile stretch of road from Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum.

He had cycled 40-50 miles by this point, he has over 50 to go. Is he really going to attempt that? He possibly went off the road to the left looking for shelter towards the railway line and the West Highland Way, there are some bothies located along the route. Possibly fell in the Kinglass water?

I believe there must have been dozens of sightings of him, the road isn't that quiet at that time.

Most likely took ill and fell somewhere that the police haven't looked, yet.

But again he may have took a road off the main one towards Glen Orchy, or went back up over the moor.

I wonder if the police think he got a lift? The people carrier mentioned would be large enough to take a bike, its interesting the police are looking for it when it could have come down the Oban road and not the Bridge of Orchy way.

Or did someone hit him and pull into the garage to collect their thoughts?

Update: Bridge of Orchy station is open all night

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Its been one big disaster. I hope other forces in the UK don't view it as an option. Local knowledge seems to go first.

Other forces don't have the SNP and its political agenda to deal with. I imagine there will be some further degree of integration, at least involving smaller and more rural forces in E&W, but nothing like on the scale of what happened in Scotland.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Quote from a cyclist:

I hadn't noticed the old military road before, but assuming he could have found it in the dark then it should certainly be searched. As roadside vegetation dies back, his yellow bike should be much more noticeable than a month or so ago.

 

[Taskforce88]

So I guess we are just waiting until someone stumbles across him which could be a long time, the area of land between the A82 and the West Highland Line is not a place you find many people.

This is the only stretch of road he would have encountered up to that point that had steep sides and thick vegetation. He may have fell and crawled some distance injured?

But would they really have missed a body and a bike?

For me this is one of the most intriguing missing person case I have seen, maybe only because I know the area well.

 

[silverjug]

This is not about this thread but:
In a different life I lived very near Guildford in Surrey and a car went missing with its occupants. The car was searched for and there were quite a lot of trees and heavy vegetation at the side of the road. Nothing was found of the car until about 5 months later when the vegetation started to die and the car with occupants was found. It was not that far in and I could never understand how the car was missed.

 

[JustJo]

Ok so am I right in thinking that he planned to cycle 100 miles, mainly along unlit roads IN THE DARK?
Looking at the photo of him at the train station he looks like he's cycling home from work or something.
He was going to cycle through the night without any sleep? Did he not have a mobile phone?
I don't understand. It all seems very strange.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Taskforce88]

This is not about this thread but:
In a different life I lived very near Guildford in Surrey and a car went missing with its occupants. The car was searched for and there were quite a lot of trees and heavy vegetation at the side of the road. Nothing was found of the car until about 5 months later when the vegetation started to die and the car with occupants was found. It was not that far in and I could never understand how the car was missed.

I just shows that they didn't do a very good search. Its the one thing that annoys me the most in cases like these.

And the incident involving Police Scotland that left two occupants in a crashed car to die because nobody followed up a call to say there was a crashed car in trees?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Ok so am I right in thinking that he planned to cycle 100 miles, mainly along unlit roads IN THE DARK?

Yup.

Did he not have a mobile phone?

Good question. I can't remember seeing anything about this.

Assuming he had a mobile phone, though we have no idea which network he might have been with, I took a look at Vodafone's coverage maps for the area. They show pretty good outdoor coverage for at least G2 (calls) almost the entire length of the the A82 and A85. IME although the networks may vary slightly in terms of coverage in more remote areas, they all give very similar coverage these days along major roads which the roads he was cycling are. Obviously a signal cannot be guaranteed in any specific spot but the maps suggest he wouldn't have been outside of a signal area for very long at all while cycling along the road.

So if he did have a phone with him he should at least have been able to make a call from almost any outside spot on his route.

 

[Taskforce88]

Ok so am I right in thinking that he planned to cycle 100 miles, mainly along unlit roads IN THE DARK?
Looking at the photo of him at the train station he looks like he's cycling home from work or something.
He was going to cycle through the night without any sleep? Did he not have a mobile phone?
I don't understand. It all seems very strange.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

He had talked about his intentions to do this cycle with a friend some days before.

He must have done some research on train times, looked at a map, looked at distances. I have a feeling that he knew the route well beforehand and thought it would be a good cycle one day.

He is not prepared for the cycle however. Wrong clothing, wrong footwear, wrong bike, and he left it far too late in the day to make it home safely. So was he intending on an overnight stop?

The fact he is doing this on a mountain bike wearing walking boots makes me wonder if he planned some off-road travel? He must have known it wasn't the right gear for a road cycle.