Flicking through the TV and radio guide in the Sunday newspaper my eye was caught by the picture of a woman who seemed very familiar. I knew her face because when I was in Ecuador in 2006 it stared out from lampposts, hotel walls and bars all over the country. The woman’s name is Jennifer Pope and in January 2006 she mysteriously disappeared and was never seen again. The reason her picture was in the radio listings is because the story of her disappearance and the search for her abductor/murderer has been made into a radio play by the BBC.
Jennifer was a nurse from the Manchester area who was travelling alone in South America. When I was there I followed her story on the internet, how one day while staying in the town of Banos in Ecuador, she disappeared and her bank account was emptied by someone using her ATM card. The alarm was raised and detectives from Manchester went to Ecuador, found a video recording of a man using her card but eventually they left without making any progress in the investigation. Over time all stories fade if there is nothing new to report and the case seemed unsolved.
However the radio play followed the story of Dave and Stefan Pope, Jenny’s husband and son who was at University at the time. They came over to Ecuador determined to find out what happen to their wife and mother. Although dramatised, this turns out to be a fascinating story.
With their first attempts at investigation, they discover the hostel owner is clearly being intimidated and the local prosecutor deliberately obstructive. Instead they flood the region with ‘Have you seen’ posters and ask everyone they meet for help. Fortunately they get help, from a unemployed engineer who becomes their translator, and an ex Scotland Yard officer who has retired to the country after years of secondment investigating drug gangs. Their search really gets going and they obtain the name of a man who offered ‘jungle tours’ to backpackers, and who had fled Banos after Jennifer disappeared.
The man, Francisco Chica, was tracked down to another town. Evidence from his mobile phone and the fact that the exact sums of money has had disappeared from Jenny’s bank account had appeared his own were telling. When the police raided his flat they found lots of backpacks and other travellers material, some of which Dave and Stefan indentified as belonging to Jenny. The smoking gun was a bottle of Body Shop perfume, the same type that Jenny had taken with her. Friends back in the UK contacted Body Shop and using the serial number they proved that the bottle had been bought in Manchester.
Francisco Chica was convicted and sent to prison for twenty five years, but he was only convicted for abduction not murder. Without a body or any other evidence that cannot be proven. So the Pope’s still do not have closure and Jenny’s body lies almost certainly, out in the forest around Banos.
What is disturbing is that Jennifer Pope is not the only backpacker to go missing around Banos. The Popes were warned during their investigation to be careful themselves as they too might disappear. The backpacks in Chicas flat indicates that he’d taken other people out on ‘jungle tours’ and robbed and possibly murdered them.
With all these ‘adventure’ trips, try and go with someone who is recommended and established and don’t go alone.
Listen to the play on BBC iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zsjys
Jennifer was a nurse from the Manchester area who was travelling alone in South America. When I was there I followed her story on the internet, how one day while staying in the town of Banos in Ecuador, she disappeared and her bank account was emptied by someone using her ATM card. The alarm was raised and detectives from Manchester went to Ecuador, found a video recording of a man using her card but eventually they left without making any progress in the investigation. Over time all stories fade if there is nothing new to report and the case seemed unsolved.
However the radio play followed the story of Dave and Stefan Pope, Jenny’s husband and son who was at University at the time. They came over to Ecuador determined to find out what happen to their wife and mother. Although dramatised, this turns out to be a fascinating story.
With their first attempts at investigation, they discover the hostel owner is clearly being intimidated and the local prosecutor deliberately obstructive. Instead they flood the region with ‘Have you seen’ posters and ask everyone they meet for help. Fortunately they get help, from a unemployed engineer who becomes their translator, and an ex Scotland Yard officer who has retired to the country after years of secondment investigating drug gangs. Their search really gets going and they obtain the name of a man who offered ‘jungle tours’ to backpackers, and who had fled Banos after Jennifer disappeared.
The man, Francisco Chica, was tracked down to another town. Evidence from his mobile phone and the fact that the exact sums of money has had disappeared from Jenny’s bank account had appeared his own were telling. When the police raided his flat they found lots of backpacks and other travellers material, some of which Dave and Stefan indentified as belonging to Jenny. The smoking gun was a bottle of Body Shop perfume, the same type that Jenny had taken with her. Friends back in the UK contacted Body Shop and using the serial number they proved that the bottle had been bought in Manchester.
Francisco Chica was convicted and sent to prison for twenty five years, but he was only convicted for abduction not murder. Without a body or any other evidence that cannot be proven. So the Pope’s still do not have closure and Jenny’s body lies almost certainly, out in the forest around Banos.
What is disturbing is that Jennifer Pope is not the only backpacker to go missing around Banos. The Popes were warned during their investigation to be careful themselves as they too might disappear. The backpacks in Chicas flat indicates that he’d taken other people out on ‘jungle tours’ and robbed and possibly murdered them.
With all these ‘adventure’ trips, try and go with someone who is recommended and established and don’t go alone.
Listen to the play on BBC iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zsjys
RSS Feed
