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The heartbroken family of missing hiker Esther Dingley has asked for help finding her, saying ‘we just want her back.’
In a joint statement, partner Daniel Colegate and mother Maria ‘Ria’ Bryant said they were completely distraught three weeks after the 37-year-old Dingley disappeared while hiking through the Pyrenees.
They said: ‘We are very distraught not knowing where Esther is or what has happened to her and we implore anyone who knows something, however insignificant it may seem, to present that information.
“We are desperate to see our beloved girl again, so thank you for all you can do to help us find her.”
The heartbroken family of missing hiker Esther Dingley (right) has asked for help finding her, saying ‘we just want her back.’ In a joint statement, partner Daniel Colegate (left) and mother Maria ‘Ria’ Bryant said they were completely distraught three weeks after Dingley disappeared while hiking in the Pyrenees mountains.
Colegate, 38, and her mother Ria said Dingley’s absence was “ completely out of character ” and wanted to counter speculation that she had planned her own disappearance.
They said, ‘It’s completely out of character for her to be out of touch during this period of time and we’re desperately missing her.’
‘Esther values family above all else and in all her travels we are always in regular contact, sharing small details of life every day.
“We communicate several times a day.”
Experienced hiker Dingley was last seen on November 22 high in the Pyrenees while climbing to the top of Pic Sauveguard Mountain. He sent Colegate, his 19-year-old partner, a selfie from above.
He reported his disappearance to the police three days later, on November 25, after losing contact.
He said: ‘We talked every day, the separation time worked as we expected and we were very happy when we spoke. We missed each other.
The hike he missed was going to be his last hike before driving back.
Our last conversation was totally loving and all smiles. He was so happy and we were excited to see each other. ”
Colegate has dismissed claims by French police that he may have deliberately disappeared because he feared his nomadic lifestyle was about to end.
French gendarme captain Jean-Marc Bordinaro told MailOnline that the couple’s life was not as idyllic as his Facebook page suggested.
But Colegate replied: ‘It puzzles me why the police who spoke to a reporter hinted that’ things were not as happy as they seemed. ‘
‘I have never spoken to the person quoted. All the cops I’ve talked to just nodded and said things like ‘totally normal then …’
Dingley’s mother, Ria, said her daughter openly discussed her travel plans and decisions with her.
She said: ‘Esther is an open book. She openly shared some of the difficult decisions that she and Dan would soon face, mainly related to Brexit and the impact it would have on their traveling lifestyle, but that did not diminish her joy for the life they were both living. ”
Colegate said he had also been bothered by reports that said [correctly] that he had been questioned several times by the police about Dingley’s disappearance.
He said: ‘For the first six days I spoke to both police search teams every day to coordinate my own hiking activities and get updates.
“When it became a criminal case, the Spanish criminal investigation team interviewed me on Wednesday, December 2.
“The French criminal investigation team visited my home on Monday, December 7. I have not been “interrogated” three times.
‘I have given a statement to all the different units involved in this case, including discussions with the UK police.
“ I think people imagine that there is a group of policemen who drag me to review my statement again like on television.
“Actually, there are many different people who need to follow the movements.
‘I have fully cooperated with each one, reviewing my electronic data, social networks, providing bank details, passwords, etc.
“My only goal is to help them do what they need to do as quickly as possible.”
José Antonio Ballarin said that Esther discussed her route with him, and it was different from what she was believed to be planning.
Colegate described Dingley as her soulmate and revealed that she had been upset about being portrayed as her ‘boyfriend’ despite being together for 19 years. The couple met while both were studying at Oxford University.
He said: ‘We have been together for almost 19 years, a couple since February 2002.
‘I find it frustrating to be known as’ the boyfriend’.
‘We just didn’t get married because I was too sick from the same illness that catalyzed our nomadic lifestyle.
“We had to cancel our wedding in February 2014 because I had just left the hospital and couldn’t walk. Two months later we started traveling.
‘We are twin souls. Once on the road, having a marriage certificate no longer seemed important.
He revealed that the couple had always planned to spend two weeks apart after an intense summer together.
Colegate said: ‘We went on a 1,000-mile hike together this summer and always planned to spend two weeks doing our own thing afterward, because we knew it was good for us as individuals and for our relationship.
“ We had just spent 80 days in the desert together as a company.
‘I wanted to relax in a house because of my health problems, Esther wanted to take advantage of the mild autumn and do some more things outside.
‘That’s why he went on a solo tour; It was planned and agreed in advance. It was not an event for us. We had done it before.
“ He only crossed into Spain because the French announced a new blockade a few days after his departure.
Colegate, pictured here with Dingley, said he found it hard to believe that the experienced hiker could have been in an accident as the terrain and weather were favorable despite the time of year.
Then, because the weather was so mild and she was having fun, she kept extending the trip a few days at a time.
‘If she had come home, she would have been tied to the house like me. Our conversations basically boiled down to “I miss you, but I’m also glad you’re having a good time.”
And she knew that I was happy resting in a house.
Colegate added that Dingley was an experienced hiker and was well prepared to take the solo trip from Spain to France.
He said: ‘Esther wasn’t on a’ month-long walk ‘or’ a month-long solo trip. ‘ His trip was ad hoc, consisting of one-day hikes, days in the motorhome, and several multi-day hikes. He always let me know when he was leaving and when he expected to return.
In this case, it happened on November 20 in the motorhome and left on November 21. The ‘mystery man’ who took her back to the motorhome on the 19th (after her previous hiking trip) has already spoken to the police.
Esther is a very experienced hiker. The terrain he was on is not difficult. The weather was excellent. It does not mean that you have not had an accident; I consider it unlikely. The reference to falling into the lakes, which was a story for a day, is also possible, but also highly unlikely. The paths near the lakes are wide and easy. You don’t fall ten meters sideways into a lake.
“There seems to be a perception that because it’s the mountains, because it’s almost winter, and because Esther was alone, what she was doing was reckless and ‘of course’ she’s had an accident. ‘
Grainy CCTV footage (pictured), Ms. Dingley’s last recorded movements, showed her apparently asking the store manager for the price of the seeds.
“ The situation on the ground is that the conditions were perfect, Esther had all the equipment to take care of herself and, since the last summit we talked about, she could be on a road in France or Spain in 90 minutes – 2 hours . It was not lost in the Amazon rainforest. They are trails that families travel in summer.
Esther specified her route from the summit where we spoke. He had two hours of daylight to reach a winter shelter room, a distance that would have taken him less than an hour. From my own visits, I know that there would have been no phone signal again on Sunday afternoon / evening, but would have had signal very shortly after leaving the next day.
“ Because Esther is so picky about sending updates to the family, if Esther was in an accident it must have been in that very small area, an area that was checked every day until heavy snow came.
Dingley’s family is being assisted by the missing persons charity LBT Global, formerly known as the Lucie Blackman Trust.
LBT CEO Matthew Searle MBE urged anyone with information on Dingley’s disappearance to come forward, even if they have broken Covid restrictions.
He said: ‘If you have information, please send it to us, anonymously if you wish, and it will be passed on to the researchers.
‘We are not interested in breaking the rules.
“Whether someone has crossed a border or not is irrelevant, what matters is that all the information is provided that can take Esther home.
“There is great interest in this case and we have received hundreds of inquiries.”
