Carol Sheridan, who we all know well as Greatnan, has gone missing in the French Alps, probably whilst out on one of her frequent mountain walks.
Carol lives in Habere Poche, in the Haute Savoie departemente about 20 miles from Lake Geneva. She is mad keen on hiking alone in the mountains, and will often take off in her car to find a remote mountain pass where she can walk and enjoy the amazing scenery.
On Saturday last, she was seen driving out of her car park by a neighbour, and she has not been sighted since. Police have made enquiries and advised she can be listed as a missing person this morning. Interpol, Wellington, New Zealand police and the French gendarmerie will cooperate in attempts to find Carol. (Her daughter lives in New Zealand)
Her daughter, Fiona Conyers, is coordinating a poster campaign, and local radio stations, the Mairie, people in the village, Commonwealth Office, British Embassy and several others have been notified. GNHQ have a copy of the poster and will try to assist.
Carol's mobile phone was active whilst she was missing, but is now showing 'call failed.' However, signals from it when it was active may help the search.
She drives a black Fiat Panda 4x4 reg: AZ 522 AP. she could be parked on a mountain pass, waiting for help to arrive if she has broken down. The walks she goes on are in very remote areas, but she does occasionally see other walkers and cyclists.
A group of Gransnetters has been busy over the last 36 hours, sharing information and supporting the family. A couple of fluent French speakers have emailed local radio stations, offered to speak to police and to give help with translations of information.
We are aware there are quite a few Gransnetters living in France and the Swiss borders. If you know of any walkers who will be in the French Alps today, please share this with them.
Finally, would you please avoid sending private pm message with your good wishes, as answering them will distract the involved Gransnet members from liaising and offering support to Carol's worried family. I know you lovely Gransnetters will understand, and we'll keep updating as we know more throughout the day.
Many thanks.
Thank you for keeping us in the loop Lara but don't worry too much about us just try and grab a little sleep if you can 
I have updated my AngloInfo posting with news of the search and asked that anyone with useful information make contact. I have asked to be emailed every time someone answers, so will pass things on if necessary.
I have just posted this on the local AngloInfo site for the French Alps:
"Carol lives alone in Habere Poche, in the Haute Savoie departemente about 20 miles from Lake Geneva. She is mad keen on hiking alone in the mountains, and will often take off in her car to find a remote mountain pass where she can walk and enjoy the amazing scenery.
On Saturday last, she was seen driving out of her car park by a neighbour, and she has not been sighted since. Police have made enquiries and advised she can be listed as a missing person. Interpol, Wellington, New Zealand police and the French gendarmerie will cooperate in attempts to find Carol. (Her daughter lives in New Zealand)
Her daughter, Fiona Conyers, is coordinating a poster campaign, and local radio stations, the Mairie, people in the village, Commonwealth Office, British Embassy and several others have been notified.
Carol's mobile phone was active whilst she was missing, but is now showing 'call failed.' However, signals from it when it was active may help the search.
She drives a black Fiat Panda 4x4 reg: AZ 522 AP. she could be parked on a mountain pass, waiting for help to arrive if she has broken down. The walks she goes on are in very remote areas, but she does occasionally see other walkers and cyclists.
The French police seem reluctant to institute a proper search, presumably because she is an adult, but the likelihood is that she has got into difficulty is very high indeed and every moment of delay increases the danger to her survival. It would be completely out of character for her to decide to "disappear", and her poor family are frantic with worry. She is an active and happy person with a real zest for life.
Time is running out to find her alive. If anyone is able to help at all then please post ideas as soon as possible.
Do you have contacts with the local police? Can you pull some strings? Do you have contacts in the British Consulate? All ideas gratefully received, as the matter has some urgency.
Many thanks"
Good news Lara.
Have just sent email + poster to all Hiking Clubs in Carol's area. Copy sent to Fiona.
Mr. ffinnochio will ring the police with the ski-lift parking suggestion.
My MP has also retweeted. I have tweeted all the news agencies that I have.
Good news Lara,
GreatGranddaughter that is indeed good news and very encouraging.(Sorry, should this be on other thread?)
Lara, that's great news!
Is everyone on Twitter tweeting the news agencies and press that you've mentioned? If you've read articles by a specific journalist who you know has an interest in/or has written before on France/missing people/older people/online forums and tweet them the story they might take notice? Include a link to the thread and the poster if you can.
UPDATE:
Got the call - have just been informed that an official search is being launched by French police TODAY. Mountain police have also been contacted and are launching their own search as well.
The focus is on finding Nan's car and from there a helicopter is on standby to complete a more thorough search in a specific area.
This is a testament to all your hard work in getting the work out there and putting pressure on the police to act!
Don't stop now - she isn't found, keep it up!!
I have sent anno's email to the BBC also, anything to try and shake a response from someone somewhere
What about Woman's Hour BBC Radio 4... they are very easy to contact, I 'Googled' them and found this to be so, sadly I am not able to add links. Perhaps techies amongst us could do this. greatnan is the sort of feisty woman in whom they would be interested.
Sending positive thoughts.
Contact the Elderly have RT my Tweet.
We could all email our own MP's, as well.
If family member flying out can anyone meet them and translate for them? Who's the nearest? An appeal on the expat forum might produce someone
I too am still waiting on a reply from several media networks, but we can only keep trying.
Mum and I are currently busy pouring over all her recent posts and messages just to make sure we haven't missed anything.
As it stands we are waiting to hear from the FO about whether a family member will need to fly out to request an official search. We have also requested that the French police obtain a record of her most recent spending from the bank, and are working on finding out whether the position of the mobile phone can be traced.
We seem to be playing a waiting game at the moment, therefore may go and catch a quick nap as it is almost 3am here.
Please keep up your efforts, we couldn't ask for any more!
Apologies if this has already been suggested, but is it worth contacting Greatnan's credit/debit card providers in case she has just decided to go away for a few days? I know it's unlikely, given that she is normally very good at staying in touch, but at least it might rule out one avenue of investigation.
Hope she turns up soon, safe and sound
Have started thread on MN asking for help from pr/media professionals on MN - will keep bumping
We're working on it nonstop - our focus is on not much else today we assure you! Please can everyone keep tweeting, emailing etc as you've been doing - the more noise is made from as many sources as possible the better. And makes the chance of the press recognising it as newsworthy much greater.
I've had no response to the emails I sent to BBC North West News and to Granada Reports. I suppose there is still time.
I would be happy to contribute. I would travel if I wasn't nursing a poorly shoulder, but setting up a resource fund can be tricky and needs to be planned carefully just to legally protect the person trying to run it tax wise etc etc. Such things could be fraught with charitable status problems
Re earlier post about BBC - afraid I gave the wrong link. Should be http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10725415
As I understand it (from a quick scan) when the disappearance is préoccupant the family have to make the request to the gendarmes. I would have thought the FCO would advise you on this though.
It seems that may be the case Lara. This link was posted on the Complete France forum.
www.initiadroit.com/doc.php?theme=21
I seem to have got behind and missed some posts - I apologise for this. Particularly as many of you have been so supportive and generous and I see to have just ignored this!
Several people have asked for Nan's story to pass on to local news networks and we are busy replying to these. My mum is also in contact with the FO trying to figure out why they have requested us to fly out (it seems there is some part of French legislation that requires a family member to make a formal request for a search before one can begin in order to protect privacy rights?)
If this is correct we may have a family member flying out tonight who may be able to do more for the effort whilst out there.
GNHQ must have someone who can do that, notso
LARA! LUCY! CARI!
Someone on Mumsnet has suggested trying to find a company who could triangulate the last location of her mobile phone. Has this been tried?
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