'I’ve fallen and cannot move': Wife of Brit missing while hiking in French Pyrenees reveals last WhatsApp messages
12 August 2024, 09:34
The wife of a retired doctor who is missing in the Pyrenees has told of her ‘panic’ after reading the last WhatsApp messages he sent during his hike.
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Search efforts are still under way for missing 67-year-old Tom Doherty from St Albans after he disappeared during a solo trip last week.
He sent two WhatsApp messages telling his family ‘help’ and ‘I’ve fallen and cannot move’ - after thick cloud rolled in over the mountains.
His wife said: “We panicked. When I arrived in France, I hoped that they had found him and that we would be in the hospital.
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“But in the afternoon with the fog, we lost confidence, especially for a 67-year-old man spending a second night alone in these conditions.”
He had been hiking in the Ariège region near France’s border with Spain and Andorra, where there have been thunderstorms in recent days.
He set out last Saturday on a four-day solo walking and camping trip from the family’s second home near Bergerac, 280 miles to the north.
His family believe that he had been camping somewhere in the Col d’Escots area.
Police and mountain rescue teams and sniffer dogs are searching for him in that area. His car, a grey Renault Clio, was found near Pouech de Gèrac, a few miles from the Chalet de Beauregard. He was last seen at 12.30pm on Tuesday.
