Wendy Iles has been found safe and well – but her poor dog Beau is still missing, with Valencia locals urged to be on the lookout for the elderly woman’s beloved springer spaniel
Missing Wiltshire woman Wendy Iles has been found, her daughter Louise has confirmed, after a frantic search turned up both her 68-year-old mum and her campervan, which is understood to had suffered a tyre blowout.
Still missing, however, is Beau, Wendy’s beloved springer spaniel. Louise confirmed the family is “still looking for my mum’s dog” in Spain.
Concerned relatives alerted police – both Interpol and back home in the UK – after Wendy vanished, and was last heard from at around 9pm on Sunday while in the Alfafar area, near Valencia. Louise said when she last spoke to her mum she was confused and the campervan she had been driving had been stolen.
The Wiltshire mum had been travelling from a residential area called Cumbre del Sol in and was en route to Caen in France to get the ferry back to the UK. Concerns were raised when Wendy never made her ferry connection.
Her daughter Louise raised the alarm with both European and UK authorities amid fears Wendy’s campervan and passports had been stolen after she failed to meet important travel connections and her phone was switched off.
She failed to make the crossing on May 23.
Responding to questions on an expat forum about why she believed the vehicle had been stolen, Louise explained: “I am going with my last conversation with her where she was without the vehicle and had reported it stolen.”
She also expressed frustration at the difficulties involved in tracing her mother’s movements.
“British police will not track her bank transactions until she’s classed as high risk, and Spanish police will not search until 48 hours have passed,” she said.
Louise added that Wendy appeared confused during their last contact and had failed to arrive at a hotel she had recommended while they tried to resolve issues surrounding the camper van.
