Missing sister - help me find her car?

[skwdenyer]

I’m sorry if this isn’t the place to post this. I’m asking for help. My sister has gone missing.

Her car was last known-about in the southern Dumfries & Galloway area yesterday early evening. Her phone’s off. Her husband & family are worried sick. She doesn’t vanish or wander off ordinarily.

Here’s the Cumbria Police press release:
https://www.news.cumbria.police.uk/news/appeal-for...

She was driving a red 2015 Nissan Juke with a (factory, I believe) black spoiler. Registration number L400M** (I don’t know if I should share the whole plate so as to allow police to double-check any sightings by asking for the whole plate - any BiB advice?)

Her last believed location was unusual. She went out with “just going out for a drive to clear my head” msg & hasn’t been seen since. BiB can’t access her banking data “because it’s the weekend” (…) so we have no idea if she’s booked-in somewhere or not.

For those inclined to conspiracy theories, I won’t be offended if you pile on, but equally don’t be offended if I don’t react terribly well. I’ve absolutely no reason to suspect foul play by family or friends; I’ve no knowledge of any skeletons in the closet; and actually all I care about right now is finding my sister.

She could be anywhere by now. Edinburgh. Glasgow. Newcastle. All are options.

If you spot a Juke matching this description, please let me know or dial 101. If you’re inclined to share the press release on social media (with the added reg data I’ve included) please do.

Mods: if you think this wrongly-categorised, please move it. I’m aiming for visibility here.

Thank you all.

Edited by skwdenyer on Saturday 17th June 18:58

[skwdenyer]

Thank you for all the kind words and offers of support.

Her car’s now been found. She hasn’t.
No further news for now, I’m afraid.

[skwdenyer]

Car pinged J41 M6 c.14:30 Friday.

Car found close to Loch Doon sometime after 17:00 yesterday.

Phone pings put her phone in that general area c.16:00-17:30 Friday.

Previous last sighting Ambleside c.11:30 Friday. Car subsequently pinged at Ings & then south of A590/A591 junction on timelines that would fit a direct drive from Ambleside. But odd route if heading to Scotland.

Police, dogs, helicopter, mountain rescue all deployed last night, overnight & today. No news yet.

Some timeline inconsistencies. Cannot fill in all the gaps yet.

No positive sightings confirming she was driving (that I know of). All we have is the car where it is. Police Scotland excellent - case handed over to them by Cumbria 15:15 yesterday, car found surprisingly quickly thereafter. Huge response, great comms.

Plate now published elsewhere: L400MGM - just in case anyone saw it.

Anyone with local knowledge of Loch Doon please say hello - may need some assistance to figure out some things.

Thank you again for all the support. Not a lot makes sense right now. Will try to respond to specific questions shortly.

[skwdenyer]

Blib said:

Mr Pointy said:

Given the original request by the OP was for help in finding the car & that has been done I'd suggest to post anything more is just prurient interest & the thread should be quietly removed.

The OP requested help with finding their sister.

HTH.

We don’t know if she was with the car. We don’t know where she was at various times between A590/A591 junction and J41/42 M6 Services - missing time.

We don’t know where she is.

On the off chance anyone has dashcam footage then we’re continuing to post & share. There’s no conclusion yet. We’re not clinging on to false hope. We’re just trying to run down any & all missing data until we can canonically place her at Loch Doon.

Occam’s Razor says she went with the car. Police Scotland are doing that bit. But it might be a zebra, not a horse, and we don’t want to arbitrarily rule something out yet.

[skwdenyer]

Thank you all. I’m now on site in Scotland. Police Scotland have been excellent - huge response. Big shout out to them, mountain rescue, fire service, etc. Loch shore has been walked, boat has been out, helicopter, drone, quads & trail bikes, people on foot, etc.

She’s presumed to have arrived at Loch Doon 16:00-17:00 on Friday. Car was found 24 hours later. She’s not a major hiker. West side of Loch Doon, near the old castle car park.

What we need now is dashcam footage / sightings / anything to give a steer. There are often lots of tourists. Lots of wild camping, late night campfire parties, and no doubt other people doing all sorts…

We need to try to fill in the blanks. A large area has been searched but it is needle in the haystack stuff.

If anyone’s in the Retroste community please share - that’s Scotland IIRC. Maybe someone went for a drive on Friday evening - it is a beautiful spot.

We have a confidential non-police email set up - [e-mail] - for anyone who doesn’t want to call the Police.

Thank you for all the thoughts. Back off to the Loch now with posters & walking shoes…

[skwdenyer]

Skyedriver said:

Is there reason to believe she's still in that area or could she have moved on?
I'm in Oban, about two hours or so north of Ayr, keeping an eye out for her but the place is crammed with tourists. Guess Ayr/Largs area is too.

Her car was left. She'd be on foot. Hard to see how she'd have done that - but not impossible, of course.

[skwdenyer]

105.4 said:

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you and your family Skwdenyer.

Unfortunately I’m a couple of hundred miles south, so there’s not much else that I can do other than offer best wishes.

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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[skwdenyer]

Mammasaid said:

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.

Thank you. The level of support and assistance we've had bears out your wife's feelings - a great many people think warmly of her.

[skwdenyer]

Ash_ said:

Any news OP, worrying that there's been no update from you for over a week now, but still keeping fingers (and everything else crossed).

Thanks. Unfortunately not. Police are still actively searching and pursuing lines of enquiry - importantly, not just focussing on the worst possible outcomes.

We didn't go back up north to search at the weekend, as the weather was foul. But planning another trip back up as soon as the weather clears up. Police are going to do another media release soon to try to keep the story in the public eye.

I've been trying this week to consciously focus on other things - including, I confess, diiving into a couple of other threads on here - just to try to keep moving. And work couldn't take a back seat forever.

But it is still terrible for all of us. We don't know what's happened. She vanished on 16th June. If, which we sincerely hope did not happen, she ended up in Loch Doon then the Nicola Bulley case suggests it could take quite a while before evidence presents itself - the Loch is very cold, even at this time of year.

So we maintain all the hope we can. And are extremely grateful for all of the positive comments and thoughts.

[skwdenyer]

i4got said:

I'm sure you've already considered this but there is a group called WalkHighlands who have a FB group and a website. They have nearly 150k members who walk the trails of Scotland. Maybe worth a post on their group.?

Thank you. I'll check if anyone has contacted them and, if not, run that one down.

[skwdenyer]

vaud said:

turbobloke said:

595Heaven said:

I’d not seen this thread until now, but just wanted to say best of luck with the search. A terrible situation to find yourself in. Really hope you get some positive news soon.

Likewise.

Ditto. Thoughts are with you OP.

Thank you all

[skwdenyer]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Have there been any banking updates, ANPR hits since and did she take her phone - can they rerun phone work incase she's turned it on briefly- that'll then ping immediately to the nearest mast.

Did she draw any significant money out and take her passport?

No ANPR - her car was found 24 hours after she drove there, and recovered by Police. Lots of activity to run down other vehicles in the area, however.

Also a lot of work been - and being still - done by Police cyber unit, who have been very patient with my sending them cell tower calculations. There's only 1 cell mast covering that area, very patchy (and often non-existent) reception, and so on, so no vector of travel, and no hits since. But pre-pay phones are easy to source.

As regards other questions, obv I won't give masses of detail on a public forum. But also worth noting that she is a missing person right now and, as such, is presumed to still be alive, and has a right to privacy. Police's job is not to return her to the family like a chattel, but to find her to ensure her safety. It isn't illegal to go missing, and going missing doesn't entitle even close family to know details of financial transactions and so on.

I am, however, confident Police Scotland have been running down very available lead, and I know many of the steps they've taken. Their response has been hugely impressive, enormously sensitive, and far greater than I might have expected in anticipation. I cannot praise them enough at this point.

[skwdenyer]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

skwdenyer said:

No ANPR - her car was found 24 hours after she drove there, and recovered by Police. Lots of activity to run down other vehicles in the area, however.

Also a lot of work been - and being still - done by Police cyber unit, who have been very patient with my sending them cell tower calculations. There's only 1 cell mast covering that area, very patchy (and often non-existent) reception, and so on, so no vector of travel, and no hits since. But pre-pay phones are easy to source.

As regards other questions, obv I won't give masses of detail on a public forum. But also worth noting that she is a missing person right now and, as such, is presumed to still be alive, and has a right to privacy. Police's job is not to return her to the family like a chattel, but to find her to ensure her safety. It isn't illegal to go missing, and going missing doesn't entitle even close family to know details of financial transactions and so on.

I am, however, confident Police Scotland have been running down very available lead, and I know many of the steps they've taken. Their response has been hugely impressive, enormously sensitive, and far greater than I might have expected in anticipation. I cannot praise them enough at this point.

In the patchy signal area have they used (or you pressed them) on using a drone?

I agree, it's not illegal to drop off grid and it does happen where people want a fresh start. Wiping the old life gives a sense of lifting off the shackles.

Do you mean a drone carrying a micro cell, or a drone for visual / thermal searches?

[skwdenyer]

Greendubber said:

So sorry Op,

I missed this thread, I really hope for a positive outcome. I've quite a lot of experience in locating missing people and it sounds like Police Scotland have got it covered from what you say but it you have any questions feel free to ask.

Fingers crossed, I know from personal experience what a worrying time it can be.

Thank you. I know you and I don’t always agree on here about policing matters, but as I’ve said elsewhere PS have been exemplary - and continue to be.

Sadly, however, no further news.