Chris Bourda woke to find his wife Michele Ann Joy Bourda had vanished from the sunbed beside him on the beach in Kavala, Greece, on Friday – and he’s now very worried
The husband of a Brit who vanished in Greece has told of how he was laughed at when he frantically pleaded for help.
Chris Bourda, 66, dozed off on a sun lounger and woke to find 59-year-old Michele Ann Joy Bourda had gone. Her belongings had remained on the sun lounger, even her towel, but Michele was nowhere to be found on Friday afternoon.
Chris is still desperately searching for his wife in Kavala, Greece, but, when he asked a waiter at a restaurant beside the beach if he had seen Michele, he was mocked. The panicked husband eventually convinced a shopkeeper to help him and call the police. It comes after a Brit who vanished in Paris was discovered safe some two weeks later.
Speaking from Kavala last night, Chris, who is a pharmacist, said: “Unfortunately I fell asleep and when I woke up she wasn’t there… I went back to the waiter to say my wife was missing, have you seen her and he started laughing.”
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Chris, who lives with Michele in Glasgow, has slammed the Greek police for their lack of urgency in searching for his spouse. He said he did not see a single police officer on the beach they day she went missing – a claim echoed by a fellow hotel guest.
“The police didn’t do anything on the day. One guest who was there that day said she didn’t see any police and I didn’t see any police that day either, not one single policeman at the beach. The only thing I saw was a police car driving up and down the road to the beach. Not getting out of the car, just looking in the direction of the sea,” Chris, who has a son with Michele, said last night.
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Recalling the day Michele vanished, Chris told the Daily Mail his partner was “quite happy” and he and his wife had been for a swim in the sea. Michele, who worked at BT before working at a local council, had flown out to Greece with Chris for a two-week holiday last month.
But Chris is now despairing at the bleak situation. The dad, who met Michele at university 36 years ago, continued: “I have been searching without sleep or anything. Day and night, especially early in the morning. It was hard to see at night though as it was so dark.
“For days and nights I have gone up down the coast, searched bushes, olive groves, empty houses, building sites, later I went to the hills, nothing… The whole night before she had been holding my hand and you would never think anything was wrong or something like this would ever happen.”
Michele is described as being 5ft 6in, of a slim build with blue eyes and shoulder-length hair. She was last seen wearing a rhinestone-embellished two-piece beaded swimsuit, yellow beach shoes and a pair of red horn-rimmed sunglasses.