Missing Blogger Esther Dingley #2

[Instagram Sham]

- but I do know there's a 100% certainty he put a software program on her phone.

You don’t know this with 100% certainty, I can’t help but think this is all getting a bit far fetched. Are these increasingly elaborate theories going to continue forever as I can’t see anyone being arrested.
Dan’s a total dick - clear to see. The rest is speculation.

 

[TwooTwooTwitTwitTwoo]

The theories on here are mad.

The bloke didn't do it. He literally has an alibi. His card was used in several places and you can bet your bottom dollar they have CCTV to back his whereabouts up.

From a very small amount of info, some people have decided he's controlling, she's being abused, she's running away. There is no evidence they were unhappy except for a blog relating to something that happened ten years ago when the poor sod nearly died. It must have been an absolutely horrific time for both of them.

The pseudo psychology on here is beyond. There seems to be a lot of projecting.
The circumstances are very sad but realistically she had an accident. Her tent (if she had it with her) was probably ripped to shreds and has long since disintegrated.

Also forensic anthrologists are highly qualified. They would be able to tell if she died from anything other than an accident or if the bones had been moved.

 

[colouredlines]

Okay, so let's look at this list.

1. The rescue helicopter video where the rescuers were doing exactly what happened to Esther a few months later (premeditated?).

If you hike regularly, you will see SAR in action sooner or later. It happens. People go missing and have accidents in the mountains a lot.

2. Esther writing "I think I can see you" (could she see him?).

It is ABSOLUTELY INSANE that people think she meant this literally. She was looking towards France. He was in France. It's not unusual or mysterious, it's normal to say, "teehee I can see you from here!" I've sent similar messages to friends in Mallorca when hiking. This did not lead them to swim to the peninsula and murder me.

This is particularly clear when she did this TWICE - once on social media, once in a Whatsapp message. We can be certain that the first time she was NOT literally able to see him, which indicates that using "I can see you" to mean looking from a distance in your general direction was something she did.

3. The BBC article comes out the same day she disappears.

Irrelevant.

In fact, if you were going to hatch a cunning plan to acquire transport from...somewhere, sneak across France under lockdown, speedwalk up a mountain, murder your partner, speedwalk back down and sneak back to your previous location, you'd probably NOT want to draw the attention of the media in advance, right?

4. Dan waits 3 days to alert authorities.

Because he thought she was on a 3-day hike.

5. Dan's BBC interview where he says he "loved" her.

This is not the smoking gun people think it is. Innocent people fearing the worst also use the past tense.

6. Dan goes off searching on his own, leads them the wrong direction (deliberately?).

This is an oxymoron - either he was searching alone or he was leading SAR on a wild goose chase, but both cannot be true.

7. Dan hiring LBT to control the narrative, rubbishing claims they were "on a break".

a) They're a charity, not a PR firm. They're not "controlling the narrative" (this thread's favourite phrase).

b) The claim that they were on a break comes from a single source, Laura Adomaityte. It could be true - or it could have been lost in translation; between English and Spanish, it is easy to mistake "we're [physically] apart, and I don't know when I'm [physically] going back to him" (true at the time) and "we're [emotionally] apart, and I don't know when I'm [emotionally] going back to him".

In contrast to Laura Adomaityte's statement, we have the words of Esther's aunt, speaking on behalf of her father, who said Esther had phoned her dad to tell him she would soon be going home to Dan; we have the words of Esther's long-term close friend Phil Ash, who said she told him the same; we have Esther's own social media posts, thanking Dan for helping her become more confident and imagining him alongside her; we have a selection of Esther's Whatsapp messages to Dan, full of "love you" and "xx". Notably, these were all AFTER her conversation with Laura Adomaityte.

NO OTHER WITNESS has said they had broken up. All witnesses report that she was happy and in good spirits.

8. The bone fragment appearing literally out of nowhere (deliberately placed?).

Deliberately placed...by an animal or snowmelt. Not remotely unusual in the mountains.

9. Dan magically finding the body when the search teams couldn't, even with all their special equipment and helicopters etc.

Dan found her body because he was looking for it. The SAR operation happened in winter; realistically, it was not going to involve combing every centimetre of the area, due to weather conditions and the sad fact that if you have an accident alone in the Pyrenees in winter, you will die quickly. SAR focus their efforts on the living.

Dan continued to search the mountains for months. Nobody else was searching at that time.

10. The missing items and tent.

Maybe she stashed them somewhere, deciding she didn't need them and wanted to lighten her load. Maybe they were dislodged when she fell or after she died. Those tents fold up very small. Could be wedged down the side of a rock, in a crevasse, etc.

11. Dan now fund raising.

...for a charity. In memory of Esther. A charity she had previously raised funds for. How the fuck is this considered a red flag?

Finally, as for the much-discussed quote about hatred and loathing...it was in the context of telling a story that ran, essentially, "we were stressed and miserable, and then we bought a camper van and became happy and fell in love with each other again."

I get that this thread is just endless searching for examples of confirmation bias to support your pet theory, but come on.

 

[Queen Vic]

I'm convinced it's all been staged. If you wrote the story in fiction no one would believe it.
I read about DC's fundraiser today and was interested to note that he said he was hoping to raise £5000 He then added that it is just a few more pounds than ED had managed to raise last year. He had no need to say that, its like he has to go one better even though E isn't here anymore. It seemed like a veiled attempt to diminish E's achievements and draw attention to his own

 

[sassmaster3000]

True that. What grown up needs a fellow grown up to set up their mobile phone? It's basic stuff

My ex used to set up all my phones. I knew how to do it, but I think it’s pretty boring and he loved tech, so I just used to let him crack on and play with the new toy. Even now, when I buy a new phone, I delay setting it up for days because I find it such a boring task - would happily let someone else do it for me. I don’t think Dan setting up her phone is a red flag at all, and I think saying that there’s a 100% certainty he installed a spyware programme on it is just a bit far fetched to say the least.

At the end of the day, we won’t know anything unless/until the police release more information. These theories are all getting a bit more crazy by the day.

 

[colouredlines]

Also, the script on the second piece looks very different from the first. Does anyone do handwriting analysis?

I realise that you have assembled here a crack team of armchair detectives, but even still, they will have a hard time analysing the "handwriting" of a font.

 

[Very traditional]

Honestly this thread is becoming unreadable other than a few sensible posts, if this is what websleuths is like no wonder it has such a dodgy reputation! Everyone likes to specilate about conspiracies and obviously we all follow true crime but some of the reaching and armchair diagnostics on here is unbelievable.

 

[Lahne]

Forensics would easily be able to tell if her bones had been there the whole time or if they’d been moved though. It’s basic stuff for them to find out these days.

I don’t doubt that the guy is an unpleasant narcissist who made her life very difficult, but I am struggling to see how he could have done this unless he just pushed her - in which cause her body should have been found sooner. I’m leaving towards it being a tragic accident and it just so happens that her boyfriend was a complete arsehole - two separate things.

 

[TiaanG]

It seems to imply he was in the Bagneres Luchon area. 4hrs walk up to Pic de S.

She had to be cryptic because of lockdown rules?

To my mind there are too many coincidences here for there not to be something in it:

1. The rescue helicopter video where the rescuers were doing exactly what happened to Esther a few months later (premeditated?).
2. Esther writing "I think I can see you" (could she see him?).
3. The BBC article comes out the same day she disappears.
4. Dan waits 3 days to alert authorities.
5. Dan's BBC interview where he says he "loved" her.
6. Dan goes off searching on his own, leads them the wrong direction (deliberately?).
7. Dan hiring LBT to control the narrative, rubbishing claims they were "on a break".
8. The bone fragment appearing literally out of nowhere (deliberately placed?).
9. Dan magically finding the body when the search teams couldn't, even with all their special equipment and helicopters etc.
10. The missing items and tent.
11. Dan now fund raising.

Each one of these things could be explained away on their own, but put them together and it's too many coincidences & red flags imho.

 

[colouredlines]

I agree with a lot of this; Dan is an oddball but so was Esther - seven dogs when their only permanent home was a camper van?! And her preparations for the hike weren't good, especially with the winter weather setting in. An accident IS a dull theory, but still the most likely.

I live not far from the Pyrenees. When the story first broke, no one in my hiking club could quite believe that she'd gone alone into a treacherous part of the mountains in winter, at a time when national and regional lockdowns meant there'd be fewer people around. Then add the details like ascending late in the day, wearing dark colours, not being sure if the refuge had a winter room, apparently carrying inadequate provisions and with unsuitable footwear...

It's certainly very sad. People die in the mountains (in a far more publicised case locally, a young couple - both doctors - died after getting lost in an early snowfall last year). Sadly, not following best practice guidelines makes accidents more likely.

Sorry to all the expert psychologists here who have diagnosed Dan as a narcissist, someone with a personality disorder, an abuser, a woman hater, and more; who say that he must have another woman lined up, that he was coercively controlling his partner, that he financially abused her, that he forced her to give away their dogs...and all without a single piece of evidence. Writing bad poetry does not make someone a murderer.

 

[sassmaster3000]

It has always been made clear that phone records indicate he did not leave the village in which he was staying.

If you believe that Esther meant "I can see you" literally (both times?), you presumably believe that:

* Dan rented/borrowed/bought/stole a car from someone who has never come forward
* Dan managed to sneak across France under lockdown, then back again
* While this was happening, Dan left his phone with a friend in the village
* The friend repeatedly whatsapped Esther from the village
* The friend also had a video call with Esther on the afternoon of her disappearance

In other words, yep, it's completely batshit insane.



The French police were, at the time, trying to push the theory that Esther had chosen to voluntarily disappear. The French police are notorious for ALWAYS pushing this theory - the right to disappear - in missing person cases. Look up the work of the ARPD if you want to know more.

Note that at the same time, the SPANISH police said that they believed she'd had an accident. But that wasn't nearly as exciting for the armchair detectives, was it?

Note also that the French police, post-body discovery, now agree with their Spanish counterparts.

Finally, note that even when the French police were trying to push the voluntary disappearance angle, they repeatedly reiterated that Dan wasn't a suspect. Because he was hundreds of kilometres away.

BTW, you want red flags? Let me reiterate:

Esther travelled to Spain to go hiking alone in winter in high mountains. She did not speak Spanish. She wore dark colours, yoga pants, and inadequate, wornout footwear. She did not carry any form of GPS other than her phone. Her route was not set in stone. She did not know if her intended destination had a winter room. She was known to carry inadequate provisions. She was known to follow bad bivouac practice. She ascended late in the day. All this took place during a global pandemic, when there were fewer people in the mountains due to national and regional restrictions.

Each one of these would either make an accident more likely, or make it harder to get help after an accident. There are reasons that hikers have best practice guidelines to follow.

THANKYOU for your posts. I have been on this thread since January and it’s become more and more obvious that this has just been a tragic accident. In my opinion, these batshit theories about her other half murdering her are actually just disrespectful to her memory at this point.
Yes it would make for great reading if Dan had murdered her, but it just isn’t feasible. Let’s just leave her to rest and let her loved ones grieve.

 

[colouredlines]

Well, just reading through the latest posts quickly…
I don’t think it is insane to believe or discuss that Esther meant the ‘I think I can see you’ comments literally. I think it is insane to not discuss these with a view to her meaning them literally.

It has always been made clear that phone records indicate he did not leave the village in which he was staying.

If you believe that Esther meant "I can see you" literally (both times?), you presumably believe that:

* Dan rented/borrowed/bought/stole a car from someone who has never come forward
* Dan managed to sneak across France under lockdown, then back again
* While this was happening, Dan left his phone with a friend in the village
* The friend repeatedly whatsapped Esther from the village
* The friend also had a video call with Esther on the afternoon of her disappearance

In other words, yep, it's completely batshit insane.

DC dismissed Laura’s statement to the police in which she recounted Esthers comments re a breakup as salacious nonsense. The police chose to allow them to be printed by the media for a reason. The police chose to make public that their relationship was not as it seemed. Why on earth would you not discuss such discrepancy with respect to the case. Now that is insane. Hopefully more time to discuss further tomorrow..

The French police were, at the time, trying to push the theory that Esther had chosen to voluntarily disappear. The French police are notorious for ALWAYS pushing this theory - the right to disappear - in missing person cases. Look up the work of the ARPD if you want to know more.

Note that at the same time, the SPANISH police said that they believed she'd had an accident. But that wasn't nearly as exciting for the armchair detectives, was it?

Note also that the French police, post-body discovery, now agree with their Spanish counterparts.

Finally, note that even when the French police were trying to push the voluntary disappearance angle, they repeatedly reiterated that Dan wasn't a suspect. Because he was hundreds of kilometres away.

BTW, you want red flags? Let me reiterate:

Esther travelled to Spain to go hiking alone in winter in high mountains. She did not speak Spanish. She wore dark colours, yoga pants, and inadequate, wornout footwear. She did not carry any form of GPS other than her phone. Her route was not set in stone. She did not know if her intended destination had a winter room. She was known to carry inadequate provisions. She was known to follow bad bivouac practice. She ascended late in the day. All this took place during a global pandemic, when there were fewer people in the mountains due to national and regional restrictions.

Each one of these would either make an accident more likely, or make it harder to get help after an accident. There are reasons that hikers have best practice guidelines to follow.

 

[Superdude]

No. Actually it's about hidden rage and aggression that one can see in NPD posts. Plus attempts to CONTROL others.

Well, I'm definitely not Dan, and it looks to me as if some posters are ignoring what is actually KNOWN in favour of twisting any comment or opinion into a case against Dan. A bad feeling about someone is NOT evidence, and making a psychological diagnosis of someone you've never met is NOT a reason to claim they're guilty of murder.
If there's evidence, law enforcement will find it. Don't rely on what's printed in the Sun!

 

[Superdude]

Yes, I don't see how he could be involved. A difficult relationship perhaps, and a tragic accident. The two don't need to be connected. I do believe the French police investigate thoroughly and both his alibi and forensic evidence will be examined. No one wants a murderer to go free, but wild tales of transporting a body around mountain peaks, in winter and without a vehicle, aren't at all convincing, to me anyway!

 

[palmer85]

I find the whole thing suspicious, like many on here, but I can't believe that a body was removed from the mountain and then taken back, way, way too risky and difficult, fluid, bits falling off, weight, chance of being caught, the list goes on. The same applies for me to her being alive when she left the mountain and brought back dead. Surely that's all but impossible.

 

[colouredlines]

Phew. Some wild DC defenders on here suddenly.

Plenty fire. Little research.

Little research? I've laid facts out clearly.

If you have a problem with my posts, feel free to report them.

Edited to add: this poster has diagnosed Dan Colegate as a narcissist, a "100% women hater", and much more besides; they have claimed that a poem with the word "stains" in it written months BEFORE Esther went missing indicates that her body was wrapped in a tent and carted off the mountain; and they accuse other people of posting without doing research. Hilarious.

 

[Instagram Sham]

Yes, it does seem quite astonishing that you have to elucidate the obvious.

Clearly, someone is trying to "control the narrative" on this forum, as on others. Thank gosh, there are perceptive and experienced posters on here who won't put up with being manipulated.

perceptive and experienced? Or do you mean banished from Web Sleuths? Seems to have been an influx here recently. Whilst I agree that over policing of opinion on forums is detrimental, I’m starting to see why people have been asked to leave there.

 

[SvenS]

"I tried but I had to turn back. I wasnt able to go over the col with the equipment I had, even with the microspikes I had. The snow was just too deep" instagram post 17th Nov. This tells me she was cautious, she could assess risk and avoid it rather than try it.

I read the opposite into this - a cautious person would not have even tried! Crampons help with ice and compacted snow, but are not for deep snow.
It sounds to me like she only gave up because it became physically impossible for her to make progress.

Something about the final call from the peak seems odd to me - it was a video call. If you're trying to save your phone's battery, the worst thing you can do is a video call. It uses more power than anything else; screen on, camera on, encoding video, decoding video, transmitting and receiving lots of data.

Plus, the message she sent just one minute before the call ('I'll keep you posted') seemed like she was signing off. The dossier doesn't say who initiated the video call - perhaps it was Dan? Maybe he was jealously thinking she was not alone at the peak? A video call & asking her to pan around to show him the view was perhaps his way of checking?

 

[Federico_A]

Hilarious reading back through this thread. I see most people are having fun with the theory that Dan pushed her off the cliff.
Yes, Dan was a fruitcake. So was she. They were made for each other. But come on. There's one huge thing wrong with this theory: the world just isn't that interesting. It would the crime of the century. The assumptions involved are beyond fiction. Sure, anything is possible, but the probability of this theory barely registers on the scale.
Wondering why some of her gear is missing? It will be hidden somewhere down below. When on an up-down hike it makes sense to hide stuff you don't need in bushes or among rocks, to be picked up on the way down. I do that all the time. What's the point carrying it all up and down again?

What's wrong with the obvious, Occam-approved solution that she went up to the ridge for a photo (or a signal) and fell off due to an overzealous stretch during a momentary lapse of situational awareness? Disappointingly dull, I know.

 

[colouredlines]

Oh FFS, I give up.

The posters here have clearly made up their minds, regardless of little things like evidence and facts.

I just hope that Tattle does not become a refuge for Websleuths ghouls.