Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher, 19, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, 14 Feb 2019

[jessie]

You can buy a PAYG SIM card for as little as £1 in a shop and just fit it into an existing phone. It doesn't matter what type of phone it is; it's the SIM that makes a phone Pay Monthly or PAYG.

To top up a PAYG phone without leaving a paper trail, you go to the phone shop for whichever mobile provider you have chosen, and buy a top-up voucher for cash, rather than with a bank card. You type the voucher number into your phone and that will top up the credit to the amount paid.

All you've then got is the possibility of being seen shopping on cctv.

I know O2 do PAYG SIM cards for free through the post; it would be possible to get one sent to a different address, eg a friend, but it leaves a record with the company.

Hope that makes sense.

Thank you, that makes absolute sense to me.

I just read this article (sorry it is the DM) - but this article surely only refers to circumstances where police have obtained a person's phone??

Police can download your phone's data in minutes with NO warrant | Daily Mail Online

Your explanation covers the events I had in mind. Quite possible to make a purchase in advance that leaves no trail..

 

[Miss_French]

Oh ok like tinder for example?

Yes, that kind of thing.

 

[Miss_French]

Thank you, that makes absolute sense to me.

I just read this article (sorry it is the DM) - but this article surely only refers to circumstances where police have obtained a person's phone??

Police can download your phone's data in minutes with NO warrant | Daily Mail Online

Your explanation covers the events I had in mind. Quite possible to make a purchase in advance that leaves no trail..

Yes, the DM article is when police have a phone.

Also, some mobile providers will give mobile phone records to the police without a warrant, though only certain officers on each force are authorised to make the request for records.

 

[honeystew]

This case really does puzzle me. I am assuming that as the police say she didn't appear to arrive on her normal route and 'disappeared' before where she would normally travel they have checked all cars in both area;'s arriving and leaving? They could check their number plates and trace them and ask why were in the area or going? Just in case there was a rogue vehicle?

 

[ly502]

Was most of her route walking in a park-like area - not on a street? Or is her route very close to the street where cars would be?

 

[Mayfly]

Was most of her route walking in a park-like area - not on a street? Or is her route very close to the street where cars would be?

As I understand it, a bit of both.

 

[Oraclle]

Was most of her route walking in a park-like area - not on a street? Or is her route very close to the street where cars would be?

About 3/4 the route is along residential streets, the rest is park and a small amount of industrial area. For the most part, the paths stay back from the road, but there are a few times where you need to cross over.

You can buy a PAYG SIM card for as little as £1 in a shop and just fit it into an existing phone.

I would hope that either the Police or family could've broken into her Google/iTunes account by now, through password recovery via email or security questions. Both services can track phones regardless of SIM as long as it has an internet connection.

That's assuming she hasn't deleted her account from the phone or bought a burner, both of which would point to running away, imo.

EDIT: A word

 

[Mayfly]

I am not convinced she has gone off under her own steam, although it would be great if she has because it would indicate she is alive and well.

The police updates have mentioned dog searches, but it strikes me that Leah being a creature of habit might render these useless - if she travels the same route every day then the dogs will pick up her scent but won't be able to tell if it suddenly stops if she got into a vehicle.

I agree that an abduction at that time of the morning is unusual, but look at the way Milly Dowler vanished, on a main road on her way home from school.

 

[Oraclle]

I agree, Mayfly. Nothing about her movements that or previous days suggests running away to me.

I hope she's still alive, but the realist in me knows that after this amount of time it's rarely a happy ending.

 

[goofybauble]

The other thing that turned me a bit more in this direction was when her family made an appeal to her to contact someone, anyone, even if not them.

I also wondered about the hashtag #comehomeleah instead of #findleah, that also suggests she's perhaps gone of her own accord. Kept thinking about her today as I saw so many posters in different areas and I drove through part of her route.

 

[goofybauble]

I have known this happen with a friend, upped and left home after planning it for a while. Hard to think someone would do this and put family through these agonies, but there can be unknown reasons.

I know of a young girl who did this too, also from MK. I remember watching a video appeal with her parents. She contacted them months later to say she was fine but didn't want to come home.

 

[Atoz]

At the moment I am going along the lines of got in a vehicle willingly and was abducted thereafter. I also suspect the police may be keeping a careful eye certain a person/s

 

[Coconutty]

I don’t believe she has disappeared for this long voluntarily. Maybe she went off with someone but I think it hasn’t gone to plan somehow. I wonder if it was a stranger she was meeting, that she’d met online.

I was in MK on Monday and the police helicopter was going all around the Furzton and knowlhill area, I was there for an hour and it was there pretty much the whole time.

 

[Mayfly]

There are echoes of Ruth Wilson's disappearance about this case. The difference is that Ruth was younger, there were problems under the surface and she did act unusually on the day she vanished.

UK - UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995

It is possible that Leah has run away, but I can't understand why she wouldn't let the police know she is safe. We don't know her home dynamics but if she has a partner who might be unacceptable to her family, or she wanted to drop out of her martial arts training, then leaving could seem like a good idea. However, it wouldn't make sense to allow an ongoing search and police investigation to continue if she wanted to quietly start anew somewhere. The easiest way to ensure that she isn't found is to let LE know she isn't missing.

Leah is 19, old enough to vote, enlist in the armed services, leave home etc., no cultural issues which might make her fear a forced marriage, for example. She also has a full time paid job, so has her own money. There is no reason to go completely off grid, especially if she has left the area.

The ditching of a phone (or SIM card) and closing down of current social media accounts could be her wiping the slate clean, but the absence of any activity in her bank account is worrying.

.

 

[Plod]

There are echoes of Ruth Wilson's disappearance about this case. The difference is that Ruth was younger, there were problems under the surface and she did act unusually on the day she vanished.

UK - UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995

It is possible that Leah has run away, but I can't understand why she wouldn't let the police know she is safe. We don't know her home dynamics but if she has a partner who might be unacceptable to her family, or she wanted to drop out of her martial arts training, then leaving could seem like a good idea. However, it wouldn't make sense to allow an ongoing search and police investigation to continue if she wanted to quietly start anew somewhere. The easiest way to ensure that she isn't found is to let LE know she isn't missing.

Leah is 19, old enough to vote, enlist in the armed services, leave home etc., no cultural issues which might make her fear a forced marriage, for example. She also has a full time paid job, so has her own money. There is no reason to go completely off grid, especially if she has left the area.

The ditching of a phone (or SIM card) and closing down of current social media accounts could be her wiping the slate clean, but the absence of any activity in her bank account is worrying.

.

I did think of Ruth Wilson, but that was so obviously planned IMHO. Not so obvious here. Absolutely nothing to go on in Leah’s case from what we know.

 

[BrianJohnson]

I just don’t believe she would give up everything over an infatuation with another guy even if her parents disapproved of it

If she is alive and just ‘off grid’ and is found there is no way her current employer would take her back after she left them in the lurch and with future job applications it would take some explaining as to why she left her last job

Sadly I think she is no longer with us

 

[jessie]

I just don’t believe she would give up everything over an infatuation with another guy even if her parents disapproved of it

If she is alive and just ‘off grid’ and is found there is no way her current employer would take her back after she left them in the lurch and with future job applications it would take some explaining as to why she left her last job

Sadly I think she is no longer with us

I sort of agree with your post, just so hoping for a better outcome for Leah.

For info (not specifically directed at you) the statistics here are frightening, and the whole site worth reading imo.

Missing People publishes latest UK statistics

Research about the reasons why people go missing can be found in Lost from View; Missing Persons: Understanding, planning, responding; Geographies of Missing People; Still Running 2.

Research shows that the numbers recorded in police data are likely to be a significant underestimate. There are limitations to the NCA data, including differing recording practices and incomplete data, and some people will not be reported missing to the police at all. Research has shown that as many as 7 in 10 children are not reported to the police when they go missing. Little is known about adults who are not reported missing.

 

[bringmeacupoft]

I just don’t believe she would give up everything over an infatuation with another guy even if her parents disapproved of it

If she is alive and just ‘off grid’ and is found there is no way her current employer would take her back after she left them in the lurch and with future job applications it would take some explaining as to why she left her last job

Sadly I think she is no longer with us

There are 2 themes that crop up when I talk to people about Leah 1 - boyfriend that wasn’t approved of 2 - that she is no longer with us. It’s hard to connect the 2 without jumping to some big conclusions.

I do hope she is safe and well and soon I think about her everyday.

 

[Hjp]

People who decide to commit suicide tend to do so at home or a local secluded and wooded area to minimise the chances of being seen as much as possible, and it is often never long until their bodies are discovered by members of the public or the police.

I am certain in this case that it is pure abduction, and it reminds me in many ways of the disappearance of Milly Dowler. She too vanished without trace until her bones were eventually discovered six months later in remote woodland.

I am willing to bet Leah too was unexpectedly and quickly snatched on her walk to work, bundled into a car and driven off. I really don't think she is in MK, I think we need to widen a more cautious search to accessible countryside and woodland 10-15 miles around MK. That means asking local farmers and perhaps the forestry commission to keep an eye out for ground disturbance or human remains.

History shows a regular pattern with psychopaths and abductors. They are not going to jettison a body in a city, they're not

 

[Alias Gray]

There was a man who went missing in MK in 2015 and his body was discovered this year.
Body found in 2015 missing man case

Bodies don't always turn up quickly.
I think we all want her to be voluntarily missing. But I fear the worst.