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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.
New poster from Lara.
GreatGranddaughter Lara. Forgive me for asking, but is the family financially able to fund any travel and/or search expenses? If there are difficulties I am sure a collection can be set up to help. I am not sure how this could be done but hope somebody in the know would come forward.
BBC done & Local Liverpool radio Stations in case anyone is off on their travels to that area also friend who works at Manchester Airport has been made aware and taken FB details.
Good thinking, shysal.
Has anyone from GNHQ thought of ringing the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 at 12 o'clock? It's live and they take phone calls throughout. It needs to be someone who is up to speed with what has been done so far.
Ditto glass
If thousands of us flood the BBC with emails they WILL recognise it as a story worth commenting on. Come on you regular posters and lurkers too - it takes two minutes and Carol would do it for you, I'm sure.
Family members are making travel arrangements to fly out to there from the UK, if not only to feel as though we are actually doing something!
There is a large distance to be covered however & I wonder if anybody knows of or can contact a local aviation association or helicopter that may be able to help locate Carol's car. It's a long shot as it is black & likely parked in or near forest, but may be worth a try?
We've got a member of mumsnet, fluffifox, spreading the word on a forum calked 'snowheads' which she posts on and which has some French ex-pats.
And a member called Empress who will try to contact Justine Roberts (founder of Mn) directly as her husband is the editor of Newsnight.
Just to keep you updated.
Here's a list of of Hiking Clubs in Greatnan's area:
haute-savoie.ffrandonnee.fr/1363/CDRPAssos/haute-savoie-comite-et-clubs.aspx
Would you like me to collate all info. + posters and email them, if it's not already been done.
That would be great, please do & stress the importance of finding her car.
Once again if anyone can call any of the numbers listed it would be a great help - one thing I have learnt from this ordeal is how infrequently the French check their emails!
Will do.
Does anyone know how to write in press release format? If so, could be worth trying this...?
www.briefingwire.com
Someone on Mumsnet has suggested trying to find a company who could triangulate the last location of her mobile phone. Has this been tried?
GNHQ must have someone who can do that, notso
LARA! LUCY! CARI!
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.
It seems that may be the case Lara. This link was posted on the Complete France forum.
www.initiadroit.com/doc.php?theme=21
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.
Re earlier post about BBC - afraid I gave the wrong link. Should be http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10725415
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
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.
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.
Have started thread on MN asking for help from pr/media professionals on MN - will keep bumping
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
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!
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
Contact the Elderly have RT my Tweet.
We could all email our own MP's, as well.
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