A British woman fell to her death in the Pyrenees in a tragic accident, French investigators believe.
Esther Dingley, 37, went missing on a solo walk in November in the area around Port de la Gléré, a mountain pass on the border between France and Spain.
Lead investigator Christophe Amunzateguy said she was wearing worn walking shoes and may have plunged up to 100ft into a rocky crevice after losing her footing.
She was wearing La Sportiva hiking boots, rather than a pair of more grippy Kahtoola Microspikes that she had with her.
Mr Amunzateguy hinted that the shoes may have contributed to her fall, as he said ‘clearly the soles were a bit smooth’.
He said: ‘The configuration of the site leads us very clearly towards a fall of about 20 or 30 metres (98.4ft).’
A source at the investigator’s office told MailOnline Esther’s death was ‘100% an accident’.
‘The final report will be compiled, but effectively the case will be seen as closed,’ the source added.
On Monday Esther’s boyfriend Dan Colegate found her body and hiking kit close to where her skull was discovered two weeks ago.
He had taken it upon himself to search the mountains after enduring eight agonising months of not knowing what happened to his partner.
The search operation for Esther was at times hampered by poor weather conditions in complicated terrain and had to be called off in February, before resuming in late April.
Criminal investigation technicians from Toulouse were in the mountains today, examining the scene and trying to find further lost items, including the Oxford graduate’s bright yellow Lanshun ½ Ultralight tent.
As public prosecutor of St-Gaudens, Mr Amunzateguy has been tasked with investigating her death, and is being supported by judicial police and other agencies.
He said he had given his team ‘a month to investigate, so they could work in peace and try to find out what happened.’
His office has the power to escalate the case into a full-blown criminal enquiry if compelling evidence of foul play emerges, but a ‘tragic accident’ is currently being prioritised.
Esther, from Buckinghamshire, and Dan had been travelling across Europe together since 2014 after quitting their academic jobs.
She made contact with him at about 3.30pm on November 22 at the 8,796ft Pico Salvaguardia summit with a message that read ‘Love you very much XXX having a really good time’.
On July 23, human remains were spotted at nearby Puerto de la Glera on the mountain’s Spanish side by a runner.
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