'Missing 411', by David Paulides: Tracking unusual missing persons cases

I was speaking to a customer at work who mentioned a recent missing person story and I am sharing it here:

TV doctor goes missing on holiday in Greece

A search is under way for the TV doctor and newspaper columnist Michael Mosley, who went missing after going on a coastal walk on the Greek island of Symi.

The 67-year-old, known for his appearances on The One Show and This Morning, was last seen when he set off hiking along St Nicholas beach at 1.30pm local time (1130 BST) on Wednesday. His wife, Dr Clare Bailey, alerted authorities after he failed to return by 7.30pm, but they were unable to locate him overnight.


A post has been shared in a local Facebook group appealing to anyone on the island of about 2,500 people who may have seen Mosley.

It said: “A search and rescue team is coming from Athens with drones and other more sophisticated equipment to extend the search.

“Have you seen this man? He set off to walk back from St Nick’s at about 13.30 and failed to make it home. His friends are concerned as it is 6 hours since they last saw him. His name is Dr Mike Mosley and he is a familiar face for many British people.”

Greek police told the Guardian a helicopter and specially trained dogs were due to join what has become a massive search for Mosley on the remote Aegean isle.

“We’ve got every service possible out there looking for him,” said a police chief overseeing the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He was officially reported missing this morning and now there are police, firemen and volunteers involved in the search.”

A drone was also being used and the Hellenic coastguard has been instructed to patrol the island’s rugged coast. “We are working on the assumption that he might have been affected by the heat, that he might have slipped and fallen perhaps from a height. Right now nothing is being ruled out.”

A senior security official involved in the mission said the search for the Briton had begun to resemble “a thriller”. Mosley, he said, was being hosted by friends on the island “where distances are short”. And, yet, there had been no sightings of him.

“It’s crazy, it makes no sense,” he said. “How can somebody just disappear in broad daylight, in the middle of the day? If something had happened to him we would have found him on, or near, the path he was walking along on his way back to the port where he was staying with friends. And, yet, all these hours later there’s nothing.”

Rumours of a sighting near a bus stop in the resort of Pedi were dismissed after a CCTV camera was checked, another police officer said.

The search is expected to be further expanded on Friday when extra squads of police arrive from Rhodes along with dogs trained by the fire brigade.

Mosley is a columnist for the Daily Mail and has made a number of documentaries about diet and exercise, including the Channel 4 show Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat? He was also part of the BBC series Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.

He lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the documentary Infested! Living With Parasites on BBC Four.

Mosley is also credited for the rising popularity of the 5:2 diet, which involves fasting for two days a week to lose weight. He has previously been named “medical journalist of the year” by the British Medical Association.
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ashu said:
I was speaking to a customer at work who mentioned a recent missing person story and I am sharing it here:

TV doctor goes missing on holiday in Greece
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Yep, that caught my eye too.

Check out this short BBC report about the area he went missing. They try to make a big deal of the terrain, but it looks pretty normal to me, and yeah, the Greek islands are hot in summer, but we're probably talking about low 30C temps.

www.bbc.com

On the coastal path near where Michael Mosley was last seen

Known for his TV programmes and his Just One Thing podcast which airs on BBC Radio 4, the presenter was last seen on Wednesday.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
From the news reporting on the case:

Key events of the day

A thermal imaging helicopter will soon arrive to assist with the search, Greek authorities said.

The mayor of Symi, the island where Dr Michael Mosley went missing, said “troubling questions” remained over his movements.

Firefighters searched a network of caves known locally as ‘The Abyss’.

Dr Clare Mosley, the wife of Michael Mosley, vowed “we will not lose hope”.

The Symi mayor said there would be “no chance” of calling off the search before the missing doctor is found.
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I wonder what the troubling questions are.

And the Mayor may have to walk back that promise.

Anyone interested should really take a look at the island on google maps. He was last seen in a village called Pedi, and they assumed he was walking to the next village called Ano Symi. These are the only two villages on the island. The distance between them is about 1km. The terrain between them is made up of treeless, stony ground typical of a Mediterranean island.
 
Joe said:
From the news reporting on the case:



I wonder what the troubling questions are.

And the Mayor may have to walk back that promise.

Anyone interested should really take a look at the island on google maps. He was last seen in a village called Pedi, and they assumed he was walking to the next village called Ano Symi. These are the only two villages on the island. The distance between them is about 1km. The terrain between them is made up of treeless, stony ground typical of a Mediterranean island.
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Seems the body was found, rather than 411 case this looks more like the case of “died suddenly “
www.gbnews.com

Michael Mosley found dead after major search operation on Greek island

The operation to find the TV doctor began on Wednesday
www.gbnews.com www.gbnews.com
 
Z... said:
Seems the body was found, rather than 411 case this looks more like the case of “died suddenly “
www.gbnews.com

Michael Mosley found dead after major search operation on Greek island

The operation to find the TV doctor began on Wednesday
www.gbnews.com www.gbnews.com
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Very interesting. Found near the entrance to a cave that was 10 meters from the Agia Marina beach?? Here's a pic of the beach.

Screenshot 2024-06-09 122916.png

At this time of year, probably well populated. Still seems a bit odd.

From a news report

The body was found next to a fence, with an umbrella close by, around 30 minutes walk from the village of Pedi where Dr Mosley was last seen.
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Before it was a "treacherous snake-infested deadly trek". Now it's a 30 minute walk.
 
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So he walked for 1km from the last time he was seen on camera, he had an umbrella. Temp was 35C. He then supposedly became disorientated at the point where he reached the marina, did not walk into it where there were no doubt tourists and bars open, but instead around the boundary fence of some 350 meters to the other side of the marina, collapsed (or sat down), died, and is not spotted by anyone until today.

Local cameraman Antonios was with the crew that first found the body.

He said: “This area has been searched goodness knows how many times. This point about 20 times.. There were drones, there was everything. I think it’s just bad luck.”

He added: “The body was 40m-50m from the beach, right next to the fence.

“It was a rocky place with sharp rocks. My guess is that he got dizzy, he sat down to relax and he fainted. That’s my guess.”

Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the mayor of Symi, said the body was found as he and others, including state ERT TV journalists, were filming the area from a vessel.

“We analysed the recorded evidence and it was obvious that it was, unfortunately, Mosley,” Papakalodoukas said.

“He was found 10 metres away from the sea, 10–15 metres from his destination, the beach of Agia Marina, between a fence and a path.

“It is unclear if he had an accident or if he felt unwell,” he added.
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In the image below, at bottom left is the entrance to the marina that he did not take, but instead walked around, supposedly. This was after a 1km walk.

fence.jpg
 
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Marina bar manager says he doesn’t know how searchers missed the body

Ilias Tsavaris, the bar manager at Agia Marina, said he didn’t know how emergency crews and a helicopter had not found the body before, as they had scoured the area on foot and from a helicopter throughout Saturday.

Mr Tsavaris said: “They searched everywhere, I don’t know [how they didn’t find the body], and all day yesterday.”

He said firefighters had walked down the rocky slope a few metres above where it was discovered.

“They [firefighters] came down here, nothing,” added the 38-year-old.

The body was found just metres from the bar on Sunday morning.
 
Emergency service workers carry stretcher and large black bag to body location

A uniformed emergency services crew arrived at Agia Marina on a white speed boat and carried an orange stretcher and large black bag up to where the body was found.

Others wearing plain clothes got off the boat and took briefcases up to the location.
 
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