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AlanB

Member
Yes, @AlanB. I know what you mean. The reason I did several hours of research back in March on this dog bit is exactly the reason you are citing. There was lots of conflicting, inconsistent and unsourced information starting to float around. I only drew from what Esther and Dan said in their social media posts. Perhaps there is additional information I am not aware of. But I do think the dog sub-story took on a life of its own early on. That said, I also believe it may have been a great source of angst and perhaps conflict within Esther, because she seemed to be in 'heaven' with her dogs.
Yes, it tells us a lot about the relationship too, I don't own a dog because of my lifestyle, but if I did and my partner asked me to get rid of the dog the response would be a flat no - and if they persisted then I would terminate the relationship. Dogs are dependent on us unlike humans and once I have committed to one I would not dispose of it like property.

The fact that Mr. Colegate was able to make Ms. Dingley get rid of any of her dogs when she didn't want to is a red flag on the relationship - to me at least.
 
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Superdude

Well-known member
I guess France and Spain were supposed to be in lockdown at the time, so there may not have been many hikers around. Also maybe people see vultures quite often in the area for animals, so they might not really have registered seeing them and didn't connect them with Esther's disappearance in hindsight?
Also, the weather worsened and it snowed, which would deter hikers as well as partially concealing the body.

I am sure the forensic examinations will demonstrate if the body was moved, and whether the death was caused by a fall. They will be looking at the ground where the body was found, for evidence of how it landed and how long it lay there.
 
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Savannah_xx

VIP Member
You wouldn't think he was with her, don't see her at all on his IG, not 1 picture, whereas plenty of him on hers.
 
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So challenge was accepted and failed ! 😎

You are bringing up a lot of stuff that I didn’t query - all I have said is there is very strong evidence that the relationship was not nearly as idyllic as Mr. Colegate was claiming and I think that is clear.
Yeah sorry, I felt the need to go wider to fully explain my point of view. It made more sense that way.

I wouldn't say failed. I prefer researched and agreed with your findings 😉.
I did find reporting differences in the way her statement was presented though, which is clearly what my point of view has been influenced by but you were indeed correct that her statement itself remained the same and is suggestive of relationship difficulties. Always happy to admit when I'm incorrect about something.
 
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Very traditional

VIP Member
That's a fair statement, the problem is if someone repeatedly calls you a liar and it's not true then it is difficult not to respond and you end up in a vicious spiral, however, I will stop responding to her continual attacks now as I think I have made my point.
My post wasn't aimed at you in particular but I did literally just skim read the last couple of pages as it was a bit of a drag to get through. But thank you for your consideration :)
 
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Savannah_xx

VIP Member
All these 'new members' ...and all saying they don't believe Dan did it. Can't be just me who's noticed. Hey Dan? 👀😂
 
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AlanB

Member
You're right. I wrote in haste.

What I meant to say was:

It's clear these women know things that the papers aren't reporting. I'm sure they know where the stolen dogs are, and they probably know where the other bodies are buried. Perhaps they helped Dan move the bones. Do they have alibis for the 22nd?
That took you a long time to come up with and I understand why - you didn’t have an answer so initially you just put a mocking emoji to a poster who commented on it.
Eventually you decided here to straw-man me by setting up something ridiculous and trying to associate that to the logic of what I wrote. It doesn’t work and the point still stands that Laura Adomaityte’s evidence is compelling.

initially I took your posts at face value because I thought it reasonable to ask for definitive proof - but your later posts show that you are just disingenuous…
 
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AlanB

Member
It was an accidental fall while hiking ... 😨

that's not true, he had a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 50. :(:(😪

ETA - my point remains; I disliked him, I didn't want to live with him or be married to him any longer, but that was enough - as adults, we could live our own lives and there was no need to kill him. That really is rare; yes, it happens, but I feel Dan could have murdered Esther under much easier circumstances, if he was really so inclined. Staging an accident while hiking could have many other outcomes.
This is a point I made previously, if he had decided to bump her off it would be easier to take a last trip with her so that his presence doesn’t incriminate him. My view is that Mr. Colegate would have preferred to have kept his ‘disciple’ and such an incident would have occurred in a fit of rage - in which case the location of his phone would have incriminated him.
His distance makes it logistically extremely difficult for him to be involved (even travelling at night) and if he had gone there it would have been to persuade her to his way of thinking.

My opinion is that Mr. Colegate is a narcissist, but not involved in Ms. Dingley’s death.
 
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I'm not sure where the whatsapp and credit card claims come from. If they had any truth his PR ally LBT would have announced it.

Think through the logistics. You can leave your phone at home logged into WA & it would display activity. Location? What if you use a VPN? What if you access WA from a web browser on a burner phone?

Everything occurred in France. The housesit is 1hr away from Sauvegarde after a 4hr hike up. Unless using a car... in which case more like 2hrs total.

Card? You can buy something on a burner phone & nobody would know where you were.

Also as you say, you could also do that stuff in daytime then travel there at night... which seems likely to me! Reasons:
- nobody sees you
- missing tent. It seems logical that he killed her while she was inside the tent because it insulates death odour etc. Zip & go.
- he knew where she was heading. She had told him. Porte de la Glere has a nearby road. She'd be sleeping in a bright yellow tent. Easy to locate if he surprised her.
- he probably told her in the video call to meet him at Porte de la Glere that night.

I think it occurred 22nd evening or 23rd early hours because I think she was inside the tent sleeping or staying warm. Open to other options but you can see my reasons.

Transport:

Car or bike. The housesit owner had known them for several years. One could imagine them leaving a car for his use. But bike is possible too.
Oh MY God ! Well done SummerSky ! I think you’ve solved it…. You’ve got all the bits I was missing ! That is amazing , it all fits together,.. personally I’m not sure about how mobile phones work, but sure you can have one phone refreshing an app at home,.. another phone with you that isn’t registered to you etc,… the bike, yes he had a bike,.. and they could cycle the Tour de France routes, so 100 miles is nothing to him,.. and they had all the lights etc for cycling at night cycling and walking,.. they both had matching hybrid bikes so could cycle many of the tracks, trails too , I.e. off road,. So could get well into the mountain area before stashing it at a hostel or refuge and carrying on on foot.!, and if the tent was pitched outside or inside (yes, you can do that !) a refuge,… he could have just hit her through the tent, and she wouldn’t even know who it was. I’m sure he reads this site, so guess the tent will turn up now we’ve worked it out, just like the bones, once the papers, police mentioned they were treating it as murder because the kit and body were still missing after the bones were setup to be found,… he suddenly had to pretend to find the body and set it up as an accident, as he thought they were onto him.

I'm not sure where the whatsapp and credit card claims come from. If they had any truth his PR ally LBT would have announced it.

Think through the logistics. You can leave your phone at home logged into WA & it would display activity. Location? What if you use a VPN? What if you access WA from a web browser on a burner phone?

Everything occurred in France. The housesit is 1hr away from Sauvegarde after a 4hr hike up. Unless using a car... in which case more like 2hrs total.

Card? You can buy something on a burner phone & nobody would know where you were.

Also as you say, you could also do that stuff in daytime then travel there at night... which seems likely to me! Reasons:
- nobody sees you
- missing tent. It seems logical that he killed her while she was inside the tent because it insulates death odour etc. Zip & go.
- he knew where she was heading. She had told him. Porte de la Glere has a nearby road. She'd be sleeping in a bright yellow tent. Easy to locate if he surprised her.
- he probably told her in the video call to meet him at Porte de la Glere that night.

I think it occurred 22nd evening or 23rd early hours because I think she was inside the tent sleeping or staying warm. Open to other options but you can see my reasons.

Transport:

Car or bike. The housesit owner had known them for several years. One could imagine them leaving a car for his use. But bike is possible too.
They often hired cars,.. as they only had the mobile home and 2 bikes,…. It says in their blogs that they did that often,… so easy for him to hire a car under another name and pay cash,.. or a car was available him to use with someone else they knew. Unless he gave then the other persons contact details, they police would never know. Also yes, there could have been a car at the property that the owner left there ( my friends keep a car in France and drive over in their bigger car from the UK or get the train, so there is always a car there. ) I would guess the house owner would have left a set of keys in the house, even if they didn’t say they could use the car, the keys would have been on the house key rack,… easy to use it and refill with petrol, owners would never know, especially if it was French registered, who would know it was DC driving around at night and parking at the refuge?
 
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He has an alibi. He didn't do it.
Convenient DNA? What the heck. I think I'm just going to laugh and shake my head at this point.
The majority of life insurance policies have clauses in for 'risky sporting activities'. I'd argue it might not pay out in this case anyway.
Caroline Crouches husband had an alibi.

New to Tattle.life but have been following discussions on this thread for a couple of months now. Among many other things, since it's just come up, I have long queried the credit card use alibi for DC. These guys were staying (I think?) in a rural location, presumably with fairly limited amenities (I could well be wrong there though) in a lockdown, and appeared to have limited funds. I just question how realistic several credit card transactions would be in such a combination of conditions, unless perhaps they were remote payments, in which case how useful are they as an alibi? Of course we don't know everything the police know, but it seems just a little flimsy, or convenient, or manufactured, to me...
Yeh it was in lockdown, how many times did he cycle to the nearest village for food? Did that really happen on the 22 nd, 23rd, 24th, 25 th,.. as we don’t know which day she died,.. it was anytime after the skier and his girlfriend saw her,.. and we can also assume the phone calls at 4pm the same day,.. if records can confirm those.
 
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AlanB

Member
it’s this one

Van life: Durham couple's six years on the road (and counting)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-54842438
Thanks for this, I hadn't seen it. It's a puff piece used by the BBC as a filler, it doesn't probe at all - for instance you would think from the article that they still had the dogs whereas it is my understanding that Mr. Colegate got rid of them despite Ms. Dingley's unhappiness about it.
It also suggested they had no plans to end their travelling which was not the case, it was an area of conflict for them because Ms. Dingley did not want to go home and Mr. Colegate did.
 
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SummerSky

Active member
Apa
According to their Facebook page, the shared one ( why has Dan removed her personal one? … ) she has been cremated in France and her ashes scattered where Dan decided she wanted them ( various locations, guess uk, and other countries? ) So whatever info. they discovered post-mortem,… it hasn’t been released. I guess it’s more of a case of being inconclusive,….. feel sorry for the next victim, and my guess is she’s already being lured in,. Probably via social media initially,… poor girl,… Ether Dingley, had she’d been single I bet would have done much better in her life,.. I think hiding away from the real world for 6 years really did her no good mentally,…. Feel for her family, that is her mum and dad,.. so sad to loose such a daughter with such early promise…
I think the reason forensics has not been released yet could be due to anomalies that warrant further investigation. Eg they can tell the 2 blows to the skull were not made during a fall.

That will be the biggest giveaway if it's a homicide.

I don't know the extent of what they can tell from phone forensics except that the IMEI number can be geo-tracked when the phone is off.
 
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MourningDove

New member
In my experience these guys usually get their facts right - but I'm sure we are all willing to listen to any new information.
Yes, @AlanB. I know what you mean. The reason I did several hours of research back in March on this dog bit is exactly the reason you are citing. There was lots of conflicting, inconsistent and unsourced information starting to float around. I only drew from what Esther and Dan said in their social media posts. Perhaps there is additional information I am not aware of. But I do think the dog sub-story took on a life of its own early on. That said, I also believe it may have been a great source of angst and perhaps conflict within Esther, because she seemed to be in 'heaven' with her dogs.
 
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LaurieLaurie

VIP Member
It he was suddenly spending daily when usually he didn’t then that would flag up. He doesn’t strike me as the type to spend money on the regular.
 
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Agent Krycek

Active member
I agree with you @PineappleQueen19. After 9 months of analyzing the cacophony of public facts, we have each likely assigned probabilities as to why Esther sadly died last November. For me, they are murder at 10%, accident at 30% and suicide at 60%. In fact, my suicide theory has strengthened recently. While new to Tattle, I've read every post here from #1 in Thread #1 and been entrenched with analyzing data on WS since early December.

That said, I have two scenarios rumbling around in my mind, based on the facts we have so far. The second, mind you, has a bunch of speculation thanks to what you all have been discussing here on Tattle - many similar thoughts I only shared privately since they were unspeakable on WS.

1. Suicide with Post Mortem Fall: Esther found a secluded niche on the rocky French side of the pic de le glere ridge ("dipped into France"), and quietly passed away by her chosen method, perhaps presuming she might never be found and could finally rest in peace. But with overwintering, snow and ice melt, scavenging animals, body decomposition, wind, shifting or falling rocks and sediment, Esther's body and kit fell post mortem. This NIH article tells me forensics may (or may not) be able to decipher if this happened: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6474516/

2. Suicide with Post Mortem Tampering: Dan found Esther early in his search process and determined she committed suicide (see scenario #1). Perhaps he found her before the BBC breakfast interview (hence the past tense statements and dossier eulogy) or perhaps before he reported her missing if he had first gone to the area to look for her (hence his direction to search an anti-clockwise loop). When he found her, Dan did not report because that would destroy their 'brand', his future revenue opportunity, and perhaps even negate a life insurance claim. So he methodically concocted a plan and carefully staged Esther's death to be an accident (possibly removing any evidence of suicide such as a note and empty pill bottle, changed clothing if bloodied, removed micro-spikes, etc.). Dan then pushed Esther's remains and her stuff down the slope (likely soon after he found her) to mimic a fall. He then controlled the narrative incessantly with the assistance of LBT Global, including how easy the hike was and Esther's vast experience and preparation (possibly for life insurance purposes). When the time was 'right', Dan moved a piece of Esther's skull and two animal bones he'd found to near a port de le glere trail to stage an animal scavenging scene and initiate the 'random' discovery Esther had perished. Once the skull was confirmed to be Esther's, Dan finally more thoroughly searches the port and pic de la glere area (where, BTW, Esther said she'd be 23/11) and the hero finds her.
Either of these scenarios are much much more likely than the outlandish theories of premeditated murder and moving bones around the mountains. I’ve felt from the start that suicide was the most likely explanation and I do agree that DC may have known about it much earlier than when Esther was found. I really hope that wasn’t the case though as what kind of monster would put someone’s parents through all those months of fear and uncertainty.
 
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AlanB

Member
No thats not true. Spanish side had bad signal. French side had good signal below refuge de venasque but she hadn't been there yet. Maybe she never got there.
Mr. Colegate DID say he was surprised how good the signal generally was, it confused him greatly because it wouldn't occur to a narcissist that she wanted time without him bothering her. Please cite the source of your claim that where she was had universally bad signal because I don't think that's right.
 
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Dan expected a bad signal because Esther had said her signal nearby on the 21st and 22nd had been bad, and she couldn't know whether things would improve on the French side she hadn't yet visited. I dont see any evidence that she was making false claims of a bad signal to fob him off on this or any other occasion, let alone "often". You certainly haven't provided any.
 
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