Missing Blogger Esther Dingley #2

[sassmaster3000]

The gendarmes said from the beginning that the relationship was not as Dan describes, that there were problems. They made clear you can’t trust Colgate’s statements. I believe the police. They don’t usually say stuff like that. It makes me look closely at everything he says and doesn’t say. That wasn’t the only time they did that.
Maybe a forensic person is not able to tell if Dan moved the skull with hair and placed it next to the trail. Maybe that’s difficult.
There is something very wrong with Colegate. You can tell from the way he treats Esther in videos. He made a statement about finding the remains that was all about him. Nothing about Esther. Narcissist.

Doesn’t make him a murderer though

 

[Pollyanna263]

It would be impossible to hire a car without a driving licence and payment card, unless you did a very dodgy cash hire but you’d need to know who to ask for that.

I have no idea about getting a false ID and driving licence but that would take some forward planning.

 

[MourningDove]

Esther wasn't a weak person according to those who knew her.

She was also unlikely to hurt her loved ones or act irresponsibly according to those who knew her. She was celebrating her self sufficiency and independence. See her snail posts.

Hi @SummerSky. I am not here to ask anyone to adopt my conclusions about dear Esther's death. I have dissected nearly every available fact in this case and drawn my own conclusions. As have you and others here. But given your statements above I suggest you may learn more about suicide.

I have lost several friends to suicide over my many decades. The first was a 10 year old friend in fifth grade. None of my friends who committed suicide were weak, none were selfish, and all their deaths were a surprise. The common denominator is they have kind and sensitive souls.

Here are some brief but informative articles from national and international government organizations about suicide you may find interesting.

• https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html
• https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/September-2020/5-Common-Myths-About-Suicide-Debunked
• https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide

 

[SummerSky]

I see what you mean, but could this depend on how long the body/bones have been back up on the mountain? If say she died off the mountain, body covered up, possibly wrapped in the tent for a 6 months, then transported back up mountain and dropped off pic de la Glere without the tent, depending on state of body, it may fall/come to rest on a similar position to if someone had fallen alive. Then stayed there for next 3 months, dirt from previous resting place would surely have disintegrated? Have very little knowledge of forensics, but is it possible?

I think microscopic bacteria travels with the bones.

If he washed the bones with bleach they'll spot that too.



SEPARATE POST:

Rickshaw on WS today... regarding Esther texting "I think I can see you!" (Dan)

"I've always suspected it was literal, and DC was actually in the area. However, I have exactly no evidence. For unclear reasons, we don't have DC's texts or transcripts (i.e. the other half of the conversations with ED), so we don't have the story about a lot of things."

.....

On topic but off-site:

Shout out to TheInvestigator on WS. Kudos for asking questions about the tent.

Ignore the bitchy replies. If Esther was their daughter/sister etc they'd sing a different tune.

 

[PeggyHenry]

Yes, it can’t be ignored that the hiker reported to the authorities that days before she disappeared’Esther said they were taking a break and didn't know if they were going to get back together again.

'When you're not 100 per cent okay with your partner, you're not going to be totally balanced emotionally.’
This was in media reports and there is no reason to believe the witness made it up.

Later DC is stated as referring to this as salacious nonsense. So we have a clear discrepancy between a witness report and DC’s account.
The authorities will have taken this into account.

 

[LaurieLaurie]

Had similar thoughts but I noticed you can drive to Porte de la Glere...
And the skull bit was found next to a running trail.

So it's possible. Plus he told us adamantly in 2020 she was not on the mountain. And there were no vultures so no scent of a corpse.

So there are only 2 options. Either he carted the body away possibly via car & brought bones back 8 months later... or he wedged/buried her on the mountain and unpacked her later.

Remember he went "searching" several times since April. I thought it odd how he'd tell the media he was back in the area every 2 weeks or so. Why not just stick around? Why back & forth?

So he's had plenty of time to polish the logistics of staging the scene. Unobserved.

Actually 3 possibilities. The third: met up with her at Sauvegarde then drove away... (the tracking dogs lost her scent at that location as did GPS)... there's a road somewhere nearby. Then killed her offsite, buried her, took bones to the mountain 5-8 mths later.

To me it sounds like he was going back and forth to where she was to get a kick out of it. They say murderers love to relive the moment over and over.

 

[SummerSky]

If you read the ‘about us’ section on their blog she talks about him a lot in her description but he doesn’t really mention her in his. It’s really telling.
He also takes credit for all their books too. The more we uncover about this man, the more chilling it is that someone like that can hide in plain sight.

TheInvestigator such a shame you got banned from WS, there are a couple of posters there that are trying to control the narrative in DC’s favour over there for some unknown reason. I’m on there under a different name and learned a lot from your posts!

There's more actual sleuthing occurring here on Tattle in this case than WS so no loss.

It amazes me that these controlling types join a crime forum but spend all their time claiming victims committed suicide or had an accident!

And get highly offended when someone says it looks like a crime! Lordy, the hypocrisy.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

He’s directly begging for donations, it makes me feel ill.

The odd thing about LB Trust is they were never representing Esther’s best interests in all this, it was always about Dan. The ethics of it fascinate me. What if, in a case like this, the agency suspect they are helping a killer get away with a crime?

 

[PeggyHenry]

I came here because you can discuss the case without restrictions!!

 

[LaurieLaurie]

The police will suspect him but he won’t have a clue because they will be playing to his tune to a certain degree, they play the long game and wait for something that gives them proof while they watch and wait.

In other murder cases they have strongly suspected who it is but they are waiting for crucial information to be handed into the police before they pounce (The Delphi Murders). They’ve said many times they strongly suspect who it is but they need that one more piece of the puzzle.

 

[Estella]

"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. Bearing this in mind, makes no sense why she was up at pic de la Glere. If she was up pic Sauvegard at 4pm, what time would it have taken her to get from there to Pic Glere? Would be interesting to know what sort of time it would have been?

 

[PineappleQueen19]

We need to stop the witch-hunting, mudslinging etc or this thread will be locked, which would be a huge shame. There’s ways to disagree without making it personal or inflammatory. We’ve already had a warning.

 

[SummerSky]

Yes I agree, I also think there are a fair few 'refugees' from Websleuths here who were driven from the Esther Dingle discussion threads there by over zealous moderation and some prolific posters' need to try and control the narrative there - where DC cannot be spoken of as anything other than a hero. I do think DC reads these forums, as parts of his dossier read as a point-by-point answer to things raised on earlier Esther Dingle Websleuths threads when the discussion there was a lot more free.

And that's the great thing about Tattle. There are posters from all different backgrounds, nobody controls the narrative and everyone gets a say. There are many perspectives, valuable ideas from fresh eyes and chat just flows.

Lol at "refugees".

 

[greenvelvet]

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?

I get you think he’s innocent but all OP said was to also consider 1) the idea that Esther wasn’t happy and 2) the pretty normal concept of someone unhappy pretending to be fine to one person but eventually being honest with someone else. Youre making it clear you think that idea is ridiculous, by comparing it to an idea you also think is untrue, by insinuating that the women who found her to be depressed are making massive, inaccurate judgements. But what do you know more than them?

what’s ridiculous about the idea Esther could be unhappy? I think there’s evidence to suggest this, and even if there wasn’t it wouldn’t mean it’s not worth speaking about. To avoid the conversation entirely in the name of being completely and utterly kind to Dan seems unkind to Esther

 

[reCAPTCHA]

My husband always sets up my new phone. It’s a chore to me, but he fucking loves that shit. Win-win!

Fairly sure after 18 yrs of knowing him that doing this isn’t an indicator that he’s a controlling, narcissistic murderer We both know the pin codes to our phones (just in case) so no need for spy-wear

 

[PineappleQueen19]

If the police had reasonable suspicion they would have arrested him. He has never been arrested.

They really wouldn’t. They wouldn’t arrest unless they were confident to be able to charge him. And they wouldn’t charge him unless they were confident of meeting the threshold for conviction - not least because that determines the specific charge and if you get that wrong it’s all for nothing.

The superb tv show ‘The Investigation’ about journalist Kim Wall is a good example of how this works. It’s a drama but meticulously researched and faithfully & sensitively presented according to those portrayed.

 

[Passive_Aggressive_Lemon]

Fascinating thread. The dynamic is so different on here from the rest of Tattle. Is it this fraught on Websleuths too?

Here’s a question that I’be not been able to find the answer to online and I was hoping you guys might know the answer…

Did Dan spot her remains from a distance and alert the authorities? Or did he physically get close enough to them where he could access them and her belongings?

The reason I ask is that I assumed it was the former and he’d spotted her body in a ravine or something below that was inaccessible without climbing equipment. However, some posters seem to be suggesting he moved the body or he found it so he could explain the presence of his DNA on it.

 

[TwooTwooTwitTwitTwoo]

Well, even if I were to agree with you (which I definitely don’t) that doesn’t amount to no evidence, there is a ton of evidence of varying degrees of strength that you choose to discount, which is your prerogative but a very different thing.

Please provide a link to Laura Adomaityte’s statement that has been reported more ambiguously - it has never been reported differently here and I have never seen it so I am open to this if it in fact exists.
This is what I see everywhere :
———————————-
“Fellow hiker, Laura Adomaityte, who met Dingley in a shelter several days before her disappearance, told The Times that the 37-year-old British woman told her she was "taking a break" from Colegate and "didn't know if they were going to get back together again."
————————————
Let’s see what you have.

Edit: I forgot to staff the link for this - just one of many :

The story behind the disappearance and death of hiker Esther Dingley, who vanished on a solo mountain trek

Esther Dingley, an experienced hiker and blogger, went missing in November 2020 while on a solo trek in the Pyrenees mountains, on the French-Spain border.

www.google.com

Ooh I like a challenge .
I've had a brief look and you're right her words are fairly consistent. Although different articles have different tones. Some have a longer version of her statement for instance and are more generalised whereas others seem to focus on the relationship difficulty aspect.

It's been ages since I read the articles I'm referring to though, it was at the time she first went missing, so it's entirely possible I've just blended various witness accounts and tones of articles.
This lady seems sure there were difficulties of some sort. Although it's hard to know for certain without having literally been there if that was exactly what was meant by it or if some was assumption on her part.
However, maybe Esther was having doubts that Dan didn't know about? Or perhaps he felt frustrated that people thinking she had run off would delay the search for her in some way and felt that denying there was a problem would be the best thing to do?

I still disagree that there is actual evidence of him doing things to control her though. The things he says and does can be interpreted in different ways. The way someone interprets his words and actions is opinion only. It's not discounting evidence, it's just a difference of opinion.

I'll give an example and include a reply to what somebody asked about bugging the phone.
Someone made reference to him setting her phone up and from that it was decided that he did that to control her and to be able to place a tracking app on there (this is what I meant by bugging her phone). Maybe she found setting up a phone boring and he was happy to do it? Why does it have to be a negative thing?

Similarly comments about him controlling what she ate because they ate bigger meals when he was with her. Couldn't it also be because maybe he enjoyed cooking more or he encouraged her to eat well? Why does it have to be assumed as something negative about him?

I just feel sad for him, as I would for anyone in the same situation. He has been cleared of any involvement, in fact I don't think he was ever an official suspect in the first place, yet his words and actions, some of which are years old, are being picked apart. It just seems unjust I suppose. He's a victim in all this too. I doubt he reads here but can you imagine if you were him and you read some of the things that have been said here? It could destroy a person completely.

That said, I do realise this is a gossip forum and people are here to debate stuff and give opinions. That's the whole point of the website obviously!

I think I'd feel differently if the circumstances were such that there was cause to believe he could be involved but there isn't in this case.

 

[Jackson18851964]

I've just read Dan's poems. Of course, poetry can be read any manner of ways. Just unsettling. Dan doesn't exactly help himself with his manner, even if he is completely innocent or not. I am just reminded of poor Esther in those 3 lost days, cold, hungry and totally alone. If Dan is on these forums, he could practice a little humility and respect for a woman who has passed away in truly god awful conditions.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

I’m not convinced he killed her. I’m not convinced it was an accident either. There’s a lot of unanswered questions. It’s early days but my instinct says it will be recorded as an accident and Dan will go on to financially gain from her life & death in opaque ways under the guise of keeping her memory alive for as long as it suits him.

If it was an accident I do think he indirectly contributed to some (not all) of the circumstances that led to it happening. No that does not make him a murderer.

It is such a tragic loss. In that video of them talking about the volunteer mountain rescue crew, not only is the subject matter eerily prescient, I find her presence on screen captivating. And she seems so weighed down.

I realise there is an element of hindsight combined with projection there as I can’t unknow the context. We can only guess at what was going on with Esther. I wish she had been able to confide in someone.