The body of the British hiker Esther Dingley has been found by her partner in the Pyrenees, nearly seven months after she went missing on the Spanish and French border. The remains of the 37-year-old were discovered along with her equipment close to where a skull bone was found two weeks ago, according to a charity supporting Dingley’s family. The organisation, LBT Global, said the discovery was made on Monday by Daniel Colegate, Dingley’s partner, who has led the effort to find her since she was last seen on 22 November. Christophe Amunzateguy, the French prosecutor leading the investigation, told the Guardian that the police believed “strongly, even almost exclusively” that her death was an accident based on where her body was found. Dingley’s death had been confirmed just over a week ago after DNA testing carried out on the skull bone, which was discovered by a mountain runner last month. LBT Global said an accidental death was “the most likely hypothesis, given the location and other early indications” but urged people not to speculate and added: “A full investigation is under way to confirm the details surrounding this tragedy.” The disappearance of Dingley, an experienced hiker, had baffled investigators and rescue teams on both sides of the Spanish-French border. An initial search was called off due to bad weather but subsequent searches had found no trace of her. Amunzateguy, the public prosecutor at Saint Gaudens where the search operation has been run, said Dingley’s body had been found high in the mountain, leading credence to the hypothesis that her death had been an accident. “It’s not the kind of place you just come across. It is high in the mountains and difficult to access,” he said. “I have just spoken to the gendarmes who are carrying out the investigation and they tell me that their inquiries lead them to believe strongly, even almost exclusively, that it was an accident.” He added that it would have taken an experienced hiker to reach the site. “As when any body is discovered we have sent out various teams to recover the body and collect forensic evidence because while we strongly believe this to be Madame Dingley, we will need to carry out scientific tests to establish that it is her,” Amunzateguy said. Colegate, 38, continued searching for the remains of his partner of 20 years after the confirmation of her death. Last month he said he had walked 700 miles in his quest for answers. “A team of forensic specialists along with mountain rescue personnel were dispatched to the site in order to catalogue the scene and recover Esther,” LBT Global said. “The family remain incredibly grateful for the efforts of the police units involved and their commitment to understanding the exact circumstances of Esther’s death.” Dingley, a former junior rower for Great Britain, had been hiking around Europe for six years with Colegate, both having left their jobs in Durham to set out on the trip of a lifetime after health complications. The pair met at the University of Oxford and lived in County Durham before going travelling in 2014. They wrote a popular travel blog and five short children’s books inspired by their dog, Leela, and her six puppies, who they rescued while in southern Spain. The couple had been staying in a farmhouse in southern France when Dingley went hiking alone across the Spanish border at the end of October. She was last seen on 22 November in the Luchonnais region of south-west France. Her last communication was a selfie on the summit of Pic de Sauvegarde, sent to Colegate, on 22 November. In a joint statement confirming her death 11 days ago, Colegate and Dingley’s mother, Ria Bryant, said: “We have all known for many months that the chance we would get to hug our beloved Esther again, to feel her warm hand in ours, to see her beautiful smile and to watch the room light up again whenever she arrived was tiny, but with this confirmation that small hope has now faded. It is devastating beyond words.”