Missing sister - help me find her car?

[skwdenyer]

Jonmx said:

Any childhood haunts in that area, or places that might have meaning to her? Plod will have done a property search of her home address, but if you have access to it and can check any Google searches on home computer etc that might give an indication of where she was headed it helps. Her office computer may well have some Google searches as well; I'd imagine from her job she spent a lot of time at work and on the computer.
My thoughts are with you OP. It must be horrendous for you and your family. Keep an eye on yourself and those around you as well as keeping your efforts on finding her.

Thank you. Her home is 2.5 hours from me. Her husband has been liaising with Police who have access to devices etc. Others are involved, too, so that aspect is being covered as well as I can ensure.

No childhood haunts in that area, sadly, however.

[skwdenyer]

Digger said:

Could you ask the police that question & see if it is within their remit? Also local councils CCTV?

Yes good point to ask Police this; actioned just now.

[SistersofPercy]

Can you contact the national papers? Get this in the news. People are up and down those arterial routes all the time as well as holidaying in the area and there might be someone out there who spotted her or the car before she left it and hasn't realised?
It needs to go national.


All my thoughts are with your family.

Edited to add. Have shared a FB Appeal, would it help to share to other big sites such as Mumsnet etc? Happy to post the appeal on there if you want? There are a lot of Scotts MNetters.

Edited by SistersofPercy on Wednesday 21st June 16:30

[skwdenyer]

SistersofPercy said:

Can you contact the national papers? Get this in the news. People are up and down those arterial routes all the time as well as holidaying in the area and there might be someone out there who spotted her or the car before she left it and hasn't realised?
It needs to go national.


All my thoughts are with your family.

Edited to add. Have shared a FB Appeal, would it help to share to other big sites such as Mumsnet etc? Happy to post the appeal on there if you want? There are a lot of Scotts MNetters.

Edited by SistersofPercy on Wednesday 21st June 16:30

Thank you. All is useful.

Posters (to be used online, too) can be found here:

Single poster / page 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ld57f40fmwj0evi/Finding_...

Adjunct poster / page 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ly5y2jui94a8xa2/Finding_...

The second shows what she was wearing on Friday. In sites that have space, putting up both helps. When I get a moment I'll redesign a single poster containing the additional CCTV image.

In terms of media, we were lead item on the ITV regional news, and on several other regional news outlets. We have somebody trying to get this national, but it is a noisy environment out there - there's always another disaster, missing persons are (sadly) common, and we don't have the intrigue of, say, the dog water by the water mystery.

Big sites are great. Also niche stuff like nature photographers, walking groups, motorcycle ride-out groups, etc. We're trying to get it anywhere we can, but have limited resource right now to cover all the bases.

[Pflanzgarten]

On poster 2, where was the cctv footage taken from?

[105.4]

skwdenyer said:

A thought for you: how do we contact delivery driver networks? They drive up and down roads - even Loch Doon - all the time. Maybe they routinely carry dashcams? I know you're involved in 1 or more networks - how should I proceed to get the word out there?

Bloody good idea !

I’m pretty certain that Amazon have to have regular dash cams as well as rearward / 360 cameras on all of their vans. I’m not sure about the other major carriers?

Busses, coaches, Post Office vans, beer deliveries, (draymen), etc, etc are also very likely to have dashcams as part of company policy. What about smaller, local firms? Firms that deliver fresh laundry to local hotels, local vets, florists, those sort of firms?

I guess the first port of call for all of these firms would be their press office or their legal office? I doubt you’d get anyway immediately, but you may be able to find out the official process you’d need to undertake to obtain such information.

I’ll make some calls for you in the morning and see what I can find out in regards to company policies, (don’t forget, I’m a subby), although I do have the personal number of one deputy regional manager, so I should be able to find out something for you.

I’ve emailed you my number, so if you’re reading this at any point tonight, even if it’s 02:00, just send me a quick text to make it easier for me to text / call you back tomorrow.

Don’t worry about waking me. Finding your sister safe and well is far more important than a bit of beauty sleep for me.

I don’t know if anyone else has already mentioned this, but I hope that you’re taking good care of yourself. I know that that’s easier said than done, but you’re going to need the mental and physical endurance.

Your profile says ‘London & Yorkshire’. I’m on the outskirts of Sheffield if it’s any use to you.

Good luck You and your family are in my thoughts.

[Cupid-stunt]

Hoping for a positive outcome.

Thoughts are with you and family at this distressing time.

[gotoPzero]

I mentioned Arran before, just thought I would mention it again. I know if I was in that rough area and wanted to vanish for a while it would be a good place, loads of B&Bs, tourists so you can blend in and its very detached at times from the main land. I know it pretty well and you can also jump over to Skipness from Lochranza.

[g3org3y]

sinbaddio said:

I have nothing more to offer, other than I have everything crossed that this has the best possible outcome.

+1

Thoughts are with you OP.

[rallye101]

https://www.adrnetwork.co.uk/ national agency who ( possibly) could send out group texts to all drivers in the area...

https://www.trucknetuk.com/ largest UK forum...

[dlks151]

I've got a few civils squads that live and work in this area (Maybole & Cumnock) and have friends in the farming community down there that I've shared this with, however, they are already aware of the missing person report and are keeping their eyes open.

Hoping for a positive outcome !!

[skwdenyer]

Pflanzgarten said:

On poster 2, where was the cctv footage taken from?

It was taken from a client of hers she visited on Friday morning before she drove off.

[GreatGranny]

Nothing I can add of any value but thinking of you and your family.

[soad]

I wish you all the best.

[skwdenyer]

gotoPzero said:

I mentioned Arran before, just thought I would mention it again. I know if I was in that rough area and wanted to vanish for a while it would be a good place, loads of B&Bs, tourists so you can blend in and its very detached at times from the main land. I know it pretty well and you can also jump over to Skipness from Lochranza.

Thank you all again for this and other suggestions. Are all in the mix and being actioned. Just returned from 2.5 days in Scotland organising further searches, publicity, media, postering campaigns, outreach, drone-flying and so on. Sadly still no further.

This is where her car was found: https://goo.gl/maps/tP7SxcJHEMhJmFdp9

Google have just in the last few days uploaded StreetView imagery, dated this month (sadly not the precise day in question). It gives a sense of how demanding the terrain is to search (the bracken is now up well above waist height, i.e. taller than on StreetView).

It is almost like some sort of whodunnit book - if you were going to pick a location to vanish where it is all-but impossible to be found (or to be conclusively proven not to be there), this would be a very good choice.

All we can cling to is the belief that absence of information = absence of finality, however low-probability many of the potential outcomes are.

[Mammasaid]

There's not much I can add beyond; our thoughts are with you and hope your sister is found soon.

My wife has met your sister on a few occasions through work and said she was a lovely person.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you.

[gotoPzero]

Is she an outdoors person out of interest?

You are doing a sterling job from the sounds of it - cant be easy so don't forget to look after yourself as daft as that sounds.

Every morning when I get up I am checking google news in the hopes of some good news, hopefully all your hard work will pay off.

[SistersofPercy]

I'd hoped she just needed a bit of time out and would have come home by now.
I'm so sorry, I can't imagine what you're going through and your family are in my thoughts.

[skedaddle]

I'm really sorry to hear about your sister going missing. I keep hoping there will be some good news. If I lived locally I would be out searching myself. Here are some thoughts/question that you might want to consider. Not really looking for answers here - just hoping there's something in my thoughts that can help find your sister.

Are you any closer to understanding what happened? Have you managed to confirm that your sister was at Loch Doon? Has she been there before? What could prompt her to drive for 3 hours to go to that loch? I wonder if the name has anything to do with this - Loch Doon / Loch Doom... Was she upset in anyway leading up to her disappearance?

Any luck with getting info from her computer/mobile - google searchers, possibly arranging a meeting with someone through some website/email/whatsapp?

Was her car in convoy with another car? Any video of her car en route? Was the car close to being out of fuel or out of fuel when found? Did she leave her phone and/or bag in the car? Any forensics from her car? Presumably the road where the car was found is very quiet between 4-5pm?

Why would your sister park where she did? Assuming no one else was involved and she wasn't out of fuel, then It perhaps was to go down to the Loch or take the forest trail. If it was for the loch, then are there any other more convenient parking spots earlier along her presumed route? Is there a path down to the loch or would she have to make her way breaking bracken? I suppose any broken bracken made by your sister would be difficult to identify now given searchers will have covered the same ground. Has there been a search for anything that your sister might have dropped in the vicinity of the car?

It doesn't strike me that your sister would walk far based on what I've read but then she would have had plenty of daylight so I suppose it could be many miles. Do you know if she was wearing shoes suitable for outdoors walking? As for the loch - I would repeatedly search along the waters edge maybe using a boat as that should be easier.

Edited by skedaddle on Tuesday 27th June 07:47

[skwdenyer]

skedaddle said:

I'm really sorry to hear about your sister going missing. I keep hoping there will be some good news. If I lived locally I would be out searching myself. Here are some thoughts/question that you might want to consider. Not really looking for answers here - just hoping there's something in my thoughts that can help find your sister.

Are you any closer to understanding what happened? Have you managed to confirm that your sister was at Loch Doon? Has she been there before? What could prompt her to drive for 3 hours to go to that loch? I wonder if the name has anything to do with this - Loch Doon / Loch Doom... Was she upset in anyway leading up to her disappearance?

Any luck with getting info from her computer/mobile - google searchers, possibly arranging a meeting with someone through some website/email/whatsapp?

Was her car in convoy with another car? Any video of her car en route? Was the car close to being out of fuel or out of fuel when found? Did she leave her phone and/or bag in the car? Any forensics from her car? Presumably the road where the car was found is very quiet between 4-5pm?

Why would your sister park where she did? Assuming no one else was involved and she wasn't out of fuel, then It perhaps was to go down to the Loch or take the forest trail. If it was for the loch, then are there any other more convenient parking spots earlier along her presumed route? Is there a path down to the loch or would she have to make her way breaking bracken? I suppose any broken bracken made by your sister would be difficult to identify now given searchers will have covered the same ground. Has there been a search for anything that your sister might have dropped in the vicinity of the car?

It doesn't strike me that your sister would walk far based on what I've read but then she would have had plenty of daylight so I suppose it could be many miles. Do you know if she was wearing shoes suitable for outdoors walking? As for the loch - I would repeatedly search along the waters edge maybe using a boat as that should be easier.

Edited by skedaddle on Tuesday 27th June 07:47

Thank you for all of that. You'll appreciate there are somethings I can't speak to directly - Mary is missing, not dead, so still has rights to privacy, etc., which means there are some things we'd like the Police to tell us that they can't tell us, for instance, and other info we don't have access to.

The Police, rightly, are focussed less on motivation and more on figuring out what possible options exist for her location - whether in the immediate area, or further afield (except where motivation might speak to actions). There's extensive work on local CCTV covering time periods before and after she arrived in the area (your convoy question, for instance) - they're running-down everything they can.

In terms of devices, Apple privacy is real, it seems. But there are some hard-core people in the background working on that problem.

All suggestions are great. There's obviously a lot that has been done - a major incident team is running this - but I read every question and suggestion in case it adds to our picture. Thank you.