IMPORTANT QUESTION regarding MISSING CAROL

It is easy to be wise after the event but I am sure the first 24 hours after a disappearance are the most vital - and I am shocked that the police didn't think to go into the flat before now. Yes the neighbour said he/she saw the car but Greatnan could have been injured or worse in the flat and the the car could have been driven by a burglar. I know crime is rare in that area but there is always a first time. However, that is in the past and now it must be a case of finding the car.

Why oh why were concerns not addressed by police before phone battery ran out ? engineers can pinpoint a persons position by using location of phone masts. I feel that had this been the UK a search would have been instigated much sooner.

Soop I can' t settle to anything either! I'm going to make a valiant effort to shape up and do as much as I can before settling down to 'Strictly' then I'll be checking up again!

I have just picked up this terrible news. Lots of people go missing in the Alps but fortunately the weather in the mountains is not yet dangerously cold. Surely the mountain rescue have checked with their helicopters and cameras. It was school holidays last week over here in Germany and there must have been more people than usual walking.
It is very worrying.......

Greatnan is a great communicator. Her Facebook pages are packed with images of beautiful scenery. She shares her travel adventures and her jokes. She wouldn't simply hide herself away knowing that her family would be distraught. It really isn't in her nature to not keep in touch with others.

Oldgreymare It's at this time of day when my imagination goes into overdrive. I should be helping Mr soop to prepare the roast dinner. Or, I should be cleaning the bathroom. And, I should be settling down to read today's newspaper, sometime soon. But I cannot bear to log off. The not knowing is awful...how much worse must it be for Greatnan's family.

I agree OGM her car could have gone off the road and possibly can't be seen. Or my other thought have been did she possibly decide to take a trip somewhere. People often do things that are out of character.

It is disturbing and I know we would all like to see her safely found!

On another thread, I read thatGreatnan was short of petrol on one of her forays (with the poster possibly when) Perhaps she popped off to get petrol, I hope they search her route with a fine-tooth comb. (sorry about the mixed metaphor) Has her local garage been contacted? Sorry if this has all been done, but it's getting dark again and I (Like ALL of you) am getting really worried.

Maybe this weekend will bring some people out who are otherwise occupied during the week - weekend walkers, cyclists etc. I take the point about deserted roads in remote areas but surely someone else must use them sometimes. If there was an accident, I'm thinking that it must have been on Sunday afternoon as Carol would almost certainly have been on faceboook when she got home again, either responding to posts or telling us what she had been doing. It is a sobering thought.

Elegran if she told her daughter she would go for a drive instead of hiking she must have been in contact just before she left home.

The timeline of what Greatnan was doing before she went missing is not clear. When was the very last time she was in contact with someone before she went missing? What day was she last seen?

Graces I think if you were in a remote wooded area it might be all to easy to slide off a road unnoticed.

Is it possible that the neighbour who saw her driving off was mistaken about the time?

The lack of communication is out of character surely?

But an accident - or the car going off the road (heaven forbid) would surely have been spotted somehow? Why go for a "drive" when it is so wet, unless to somewhere specific. So many questions still going round and round in my head and not necessarily making much sense.

If she had suffered a road accident on a slippery road, then she would have been picked up by traffic police or hospitals somewhere. This does not seem to be the case.

Are there any lakes she would have to pass, maybe a problem with her brakes?

I thought it was late for her to be setting off on a hike.

I read somewhere that her other daughter remembered that she had said that she would go for a drive, not a hike as it was so wet. That then made me think that wet roads are treacherous . . . .

Two things I have been thinking about. First she was last reported seen in the afternoon, would she have going hiking as I heard she only set off for a hike in the morning. The other was I read it was raining and she didn't go hiking when it was raining.

I wondered if anyone has checked the car park at the airport.

OK I can see that. So presumably she either lost mobile contact rather than ran out of battery within the next 24 hours or so. Smartphone? If so she would have had my FB message on Monday morning (11 ish our time) asking if she was OK because she was so quiet. Later on when others tried her phone/text it took messages but eventually gave out at which point it must have been out of battery.

The family and police have a clear timeline now, and police enquiries will identify what activity there was regarding sightings and bank card use after she drove away Sunday lunchtime.

Hers is the only black Fiat Panda 4x4 that is in the small car park behind her apartment. Only about half a dozen there most of the time.

Yes, as Galen says, police have a timeline and know she was probably ok up to Sunday lunchtime when she set off in her car.

Is the last sighting absolutely guaranteed - could the person have been mistaken though I know it was a neighbour? How common are cars like hers.

grace I find that strange too that she had not contact phone/internet with anyone, in between the last post/contact and the sighting.

If she went out walking, she wouldn't post would she? It seems logical that something must have happened on that trip.