BEAR KILL FEAR Missing Brit hiker Esther Dingley ‘may have been killed by a mountain bear’
MISSING Brit hiker Esther Dingley may have been killed by a mountain bear, it is feared.
The 37-year-old posted a Facebook snap of what appeared to be a large paw print in snow on the Pyrenees five days before she disappeared.
She asked: “Can anyone let me know if this might have been bear prints?”
Brown bears have attacked livestock and threatened humans in the area on the France-Spain border since being introduced in the late ’90s in an EU biodiversity plan.
Esther’s partner Dan Colegate, 38, from Durham, stayed in their camper van when Esther, from Aylesbury, Bucks, set off to the top of the 8,983ft Pic de Sauvegarde a month ago.
Meanwhile, the hunt continued for a man who gave her a lift three days before she was reported missing on November 25.
On November 19 , she said on Facebook how bad weather had forced her to change her plans and she accepted a lift from a fellow hiker to head back down to the valley where her camper van was parked.
She wrote: ''I had the option of staying at a great cabin, even had a mattress, but it was only 2pm or going down with my fellow hiker and getting a lift.
“He'd take me further up the valley so I could continue my planned tour to another refuge or back to the camper...''
The man is believed to have dropped Esther off at Benasque on the Spanish side where her van has been found by police who are examining it.
An investigative source in Spain said: ''This man would have had conversations with her and may know what she planned.
“They may have arranged to meet and hike another route. It is imperative that we find him.''
Mobile phone signals were believed to hold the key to Esther’s disappearance as police began looking at options “beyond an accident.”
Exhaustive searches of mountain trails in the Pyrenees between France and Spain have found no trace of the hiker who was last heard from 12 days ago.
And rescue teams backed by drones, helicopters and dogs have now told her distraught partner they are now convinced she is not on the mountain.
Authorities in France and Spain now believe experienced lone hiker Esther may have gone - or been taken - somewhere else.
Oxford graduate Esther, originally from Durham, started walking from Benasque on November 21 but all trace of her was lost at 4pm the following day after she sent a smiling selfie from a peak.
Her phone will have continued to send signals to mobile network masts if switched on, revealing her approximate location unless it was deactivated, broken, or taken from her.
Partner of 18 years Dan, 38, revealed non-accident theories were being probed in a post on his Facebook page.
The former company director - who has been travelling the wilds of Europe with Esther for six years - wrote: “If she had fallen from one of the paths, they really would have expected to find her given the intensity, the closeness of the search and the fact most of the trails are really quite straightforward across open ground.
“As things stand tonight, Esther is now listed as a national missing persons case in Spain and the case has been passed to a specialised judicial unit in France.“This means they will be looking at other options beyond a mountain accident.
“While this is a terrifying development in many ways, I'm trying to focus on the fact that it leaves the door open that Esther might still come home.
“She was so utterly happy and joyful when we last spoke, I'd do anything to see her face and hold her right now.”
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