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Missing travel blogger Esther Dingley’s aunt fears her niece may have been kidnapped.
Elizabeth Wolsey Morgan told how the relatives are “torn apart” and living a “nightmare” while waiting for news of the 37-year-old woman, eleven days after her partner Dan Colegate reported her disappearance.
Their fears arise when the Spanish authorities have yet to locate a mysterious man who took the British hiker three days before she disappeared in the Pyrenees.
French and Spanish mountain rescue teams halted the search due to dangerous weather conditions on Thursday night and have not been able to continue since.
Esther and her partner Dan had left their home in Durham six years ago to tour Europe and seek adventure in their motorhome.
Speaking to The Mirror, Elizabeth, 68, said: “She is a strong girl and the thing is, the more it happens, you wonder if she has been kidnapped.
“I feel so helpless. There’s really nothing to continue on, nothing concrete. If she had had an accident, they probably would have found her.
“It is terrible to wait for news, I feel like I’m living a nightmare, waiting to wake up.”
Police in France and Spain are investigating as the mountains span both countries and are exploring “no accident” theories behind Esther’s disappearance.
Esther’s disappearance has devastated her father, Henry Dingley, 71, who lives in the Netherlands.
Elizabeth, a part-time caregiver from Putney, South West London. “I was so heartbroken when I spoke to him. She is his only daughter, he is in pieces.
“Henry went to see her in Spain last May and I can’t stop looking at the photos she sent me. I can’t bear to hear my brother so upset, he had such a good time with her in Spain, he was so cockahoop and I met the boyfriend” .
Henry cannot travel to Spain to help with the search, he said, but added: “He is in constant contact with Dan.”
Weather conditions mean that the search with helicopters, dogs and around 15 experts from various elite mountain rescue units of the Civil Guard has stopped since Thursday night.
A full air and ground search for Esther may not fully resume until spring, officials in France and Spain said.
Captain Jean-Marc Bordinaro, leading the French operation, told the Sunday Mirror: “The weather is deteriorating, making the search difficult.
“There may be a resumption if there is new information. Spring will ensure a resumption of the search.”
When asked if he had any knowledge of the Spanish side of the investigation into the man who brought Esther, Cap Bordinaro replied: “No … we are on the French side.”
But he rejected the theory that Esther had been taken.
He said: “It is impossible to be kidnapped in the mountains. You are not going to hide it in a backpack. There should be a motorhome or something.”
He confirmed that Esther’s 18-year-old partner Dan, 38, is not a suspect, adding that his “movements are covered.”
Dan also received clearance to pick up his motorhome after the Civil Guard searched and found no leads, he said.
Cap Bordinaro dismissed another theory that Esther was attacked by a bear, saying that all the creatures on the mountain are tracked.
Sergeant Jorge López Ramos, head of the GREIM mountain rescue team of the Civil Guard in Benasque, said that, if time permits, the searches will now be carried out “mainly on foot.”
But he warned that even half a meter of snow on the ground will make the efforts “much more complicated.”
Locals familiar with the terrain say there is a risk that Esther may have fallen into an icy pool in a mountain crevice given the number of deep pools in the area.
Sergeant Ramos admitted: “We appreciate that the chances of finding Esther alive are slim and it leaves us with a very bitter taste in our mouths.”
(Image: brochure)
Prior to their travels, the Oxford-educated couple lived on Framwellgate Moor, Durham, where Esther ran a personal training company and Dan was director of business development.
They lifted sticks after Dan recovered from necrotizing fasciitis from “flesh-eating” bacteria and Esther was diagnosed with depression.
They decided that life was “too short” and began their adventure through France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and beyond.
“We were always chasing the next goal, always chasing something bigger so that we could do something in the future,” Esther told BBC Tyne in an interview published the day she was last seen.
“Then all of a sudden someone turns around and says that the person I love and was planning to do everything with could have left in the morning.”
They left the UK in 2014 to travel Europe and walked thousands of miles, blogging about life in a caravan with their five dogs.
(Image: Sunday Mirror)
Experienced hiker Esther embarked on a solo adventure in late October – her second solo trip. She left the Ángel Orus Refuge on November 18 and wrote the following day that she had agreed to be taken by a hiker to Benasque, in northeastern Spain, after adverse weather conditions.
She was last seen by other hikers on November 22, when she also posted a photo to Dan from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde on the French-Spanish border. The reflection of his sunglasses in the photo later allowed authorities to determine his location.
He raised the alarm after she failed to return from her solo trip on November 25.
Friends of the couple are baffled by Esther’s disappearance.
Close friend Christine Millership, who met the couple in 2016 in San José, southern Spain, said: “She is tremendously trusting. She has been here for some time wandering around with nothing to hurt her. […] Fear does not exist now because everything has been so beautiful.
“The only thing I can think of is that he has met someone and has suffered some damage, because he would not have fallen, he is too fit for that.
“She is in shape like I have never seen her before. If he stumbled, he would never fall. “
Two other friends said Esther’s fitness and determination “gives them hope.”
Richard Howey and Rachael Hepton helped Esther raise £ 4,700 for the NHS Together charity when she livestreamed 36 hours of indoor cycling over three days in April.
When Richard realized he was one of two people watching, he connected it to his followers, causing the video to hit 100,000 views and gross in thousands.
Esther and Dan visited Richard and Rachael, 30, at their fitness unit in Birtley, Tyne and Wear in July to thank them.
Richard said, “They are two really kind people with pure hearts. It has been shock and concern since we found out about this. The fact that she was pedaling through that challenge with no one really looking or donating shows her determination.
“If anyone can endure or overcome a difficult situation, it is her. That gives us hope. “
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