Witness comes forward with information in missing sailor case
A vital witness in the hunt for Brit Timmy MacColl has given his account of what happened in the last moments before the seaman got in a taxi outside a Dubai club and vanished.
The 27-year-old sailor has not been seen since he left Rock Bottom in Bur Dubai at about 1.40am Sunday, May 27.
Before he got in the cab, Timmy, originally of Killin, Stirlingshire, spoke to a fellow Scot who was smoking outside the Regent Palace Hotel, next to Rock Bottom.
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A vital witness in the hunt for Brit Timmy MacColl has given his account of what happened in the last moments before the seaman got in a taxi outside a Dubai club and vanished
The Scottish expat, who wants to be known only as Colin, contacted 7DAYS after we put out an appeal for people who were in Khalid Bin Al Walid Street on the morning Timmy vanished, to come forward Staff at the hotel had told Timmy’s uncle, Neil Cunningham, about potential witnesses. Security staff suggested Timmy got in a taxi with another man and a woman but Colin is convinced Timmy left alone.
He told 7DAYS: “Three of them came out Rock Bottom together. Two men and a girl. She had what I’d describe as ‘dirty blonde’ hair. One guy was put into the taxi and the other two turned round and went into the Regent Palace Hotel.”
Colin was one of the last people known to have spoken to dad-of-two Timmy. Colin said: “He just said something like: ‘Hi, you’re from Scotland,’ I told him I’m from Armadale and that was about the extent of it. He spoke because we’re both Scots. The other two were also from Scotland.”
The expat added: “The other two put the guy in the taxi. They were still at the hotel five or 10 minutes later.”
Colin said all three sailors had been drinking but added: “Timmy wasn’t that drunk. It wasn’t like he couldn’t find his way home. He was well-equipped.”
Colin says he was contacted by Dubai CID last Wednesday and spent five hours in a police station helping with their enquiries.
Colin said: “I couldn’t remember the colour of the taxi roof and didn’t see the plate. There was nothing to suggest Timmy was going to go missing.”
Colin confirmed that there was a Chinese woman who Timmy had briefly spoken to but he said she went off with a man in a black shirt.
Do you know anything about Timmy’s disappearance? Contact myra@7days.ae
Comments
by brenda.cunningham
Wednesday, June 13 2012, 9:16AM
“We Timmys family, wish to thank everyone who have come forward with news etc, it has really helped my son who has been in Dubai piece together Timmys last movements. Neil will be home in a few hours, please keep up all the hard work that you and the police have been doing, THANK YOU”