Search continues for missing Briton
Sunday December 27, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

23- year old Myles Robinson was last seen at around 1am after he left a local bar to escort a girl home who was a family friend.  He then had a short walk to his hotel where he was staying with his own family, but he never arrived. 

A signal was detected from his mobile phone at 5am, about a 30-minute walk from the town centre.

The family is well-know in the tight knit British community in the Swiss ski resort and they had been holidaying in the resort for the past 15 years.

The family have put posters up in town and been trying to discover his whereabouts. They say it is totally out of character for him to go missing.

A PlanetSKI reader who is in the resort has been keeping us posted on developments and told us that some are questioning the capability of the local police and are calling for outside authorities to be called in. 

He prefers to be nameless but is know to us personally here at PlanetSKI and not known for exaggeration and over-reaction.

 "There is much anxiety amongst visitors that this case is being treated by local police as a 'missing person' case, and that the possibility of something more sinister is not being considered. Anyone who knows Myles' family knows that the situation is entirely out of keeping, and searches, including tracker dogs and a helicopter with thermal imaging devices, have been entirely unsuccessful," the PlanetSKI reader tells us. 

"Many people are voicing their opinion that there now seems to be a distinct lack of police involvement, with no house-to-house searches being conducted, and no interviews of pertinent people being carried out. For example, people in the apartment block where Myles was last seen, and who might potentially have heard or seen something, have not been approached."

We have been unable to reach the local police to hear their reaction to the accusation but already the Swiss army has been drafted in to help with the search for Myles.

He goes on to say, "There is a generally-held view that in a place such as Wengen little untoward is likely to happen, and consequently people are shying away from coming to conclusions that something more sinister might be afoot. While it might seem natural to want to protect the resort's reputation, it must also be understood that conflicting priorities and prevarication may lead to a catastrophic outcome which cannot be in anyone's interest. The fact that Christmas might lead to a delay in applying the appropriate resources is an additional issue."

According to reports in the media his family is trying to remain optimistic.

"A body has not been found so we are trying to remain hopeful. We have searched the village again today with the police but there's nothing. We've put posters up in every hotel, restaurant, shop and bar. We have looked everywhere. We don't understand," says his father, Michael.

"We have done an interview with the local television and appealed to farmers to look in their cowsheds, their barns, everywhere. We are asking the locals to go into their basements, spare rooms, anywhere they might not usually go."

The family rule out that he may have been drinking heavily.

For a few more details see this story on the BBC.

Although it is unclear what has happend in this case each year people die from hypothermia or other injures after drinking too much in ski resorts, but it is not clear at this stage what has happened to Myles Robinson.

Last winter 2 Britons died in the French resort of Les Deux Alpes and a woman died in Val d'Isere after getting lost on her way home after a night out drinking.

The British Foreign Office has just launched a campaign advising people to drink sensibly while out in the mountains as we reported here on PlanetSKI.

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