Esther Dingley: French police ask for dental records of missing British hiker

French police have asked for the dental records of a missing British hiker following the discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees, the woman’s mother said.

Esther Dingley, 37, had been walking alone in the mountains near the Spanish and French border and was last seen on 22 November.

Her mother, Ria Bryant, 74, moved to the Pyrenees in June to help search for Dingley. She told the Sunday Times: “The dentist is sending a scan of Esther’s teeth. We have to send it to the consulate in Bordeaux.”

Bryant said she would also give a DNA sample to establish if the remains were those of her daughter.

“Nothing of her belongings was found,” Bryant told the Sunday Times. “It’s upsetting that it’s not clear and definitive.”

It comes after the Daily Mirror reported that Spanish police sources had said “human bones” were found on Friday near where the Durham woman disappeared.

The paper also quoted French police chief Jean Marc Bordinaro as saying: “We cannot say anything at the moment because the discovery of the bones is too recent and they must be properly analysed.”

Radio Huesca, a regional station, reported last week that two Spanish hikers had found a skull with long hair lying among boulders on the French approach to Port de la Glere, a high mountain pass.

Police searched the site but could not find anything belonging to Dingley, including her clothes, her bright yellow tent and her grey and red rucksack.

Dingley, an experienced climber, disappeared on 22 November 2020 after sending cheerful selfies from the summit of the Pico Salvaguardia in Spain. From there she had been planning to cross into France before going back over the border through Port de la Glere.