When Michael Mosley left his wife and friends on the beach to go for a solo stroll, little did he know it would be the last time he would say goodbye.
The TV doctor and star of This Morning, known for popularising the 5:2 diet, was found dead in a rocky area of Agia Marina on the Greek island of Symi on Sunday. Michael, who reportedly died of natural causes, had arrived on the picturesque island with his wife Clare Bailey just a day before he went missing.
They were staying with friends who lived in the town, and on Wednesday morning had taken a boat out to the coast. They spent some time at Saint Nicholas Beach and at around 1.30pm, Michael chose to go for a 2.2 mile walk back to the house, where he had left his phone.
His wife and the other couple returned to the property, however when the 67-year-old author failed to return by 7.30pm, Clare raised the alarm of his disappearance. His remains were found around a 30-minute walk from the village of Pedi, where Dr Mosley was seen on CCTV. The grim discovery came several days after an extensive search by rescue teams, who deployed divers, helicopters, a sniffer dog and drones to find the missing star.
Just a day earlier, search teams, including Clare and their four adult children, had reportedly been within 350ft of his body as they retraced his steps. An emergency helicopter circled the wider Pedi area for several hours and even hovered over the spot where his body was discovered.
It was instead a TV crew filming with the local mayor and his deputy that spotted his body, found beneath a fenced perimeter that runs around a bar on Agia Marina beach, which is surrounded by hilly, rocky terrain. Ilias Haskas, deputy mayor of the island, said the TV crew of ERT, a national TV station, were heading towards a new spot where investigations were going to take place and as they were filming on the boat, they caught an image of something that looked like clothing.
He said: “They went back to their work headquarters to analyse the footage and concluded that it needed further investigation so they did, and they found him was 10m away from the shore, not far away from Agia marina.” Local cameraman, known as Antonios said he spotted “something on the beach near the fence.”
Unable to work out what the figure was, he took two pictures using his long-distance camera lens. Sky News reports that he “took a picture of the photo on the camera screen using an iPhone – zooming in on the phone.” The cameraman said it was just “bad luck” that rescue helicopters had missed his body, which he claimed they had passed “20 times” on Saturday.
After leaving the beach, Dr Mosley headed towards the village of Pedi. CCTV then picked him up walking unimpeded through the village, holding a purple umbrella to help shield himself from the scorching rays amid a heatwave. Footage showed the presenter, who had a bottle of water with him in his backpack, walking in the 37C-heat towards a mountainous path at about 2pm local time on Wednesday.
The last sighting was security camera footage from a house at the end of the bay in Pedi, which showed him striding up a hill towards Agia Marina. The grainy footage is believed to show him in the distance making his way down before he disappears behind the wall. The footage has been passed to local police.
The start point of St Nicholas Beach to the site where Dr Mosley’s body was found stretches around three miles, and would have taken the star a couple of hours to hike. Tragically, he was just 50 yards from help at the beach resort, which has several rows of sunloungers facing the secluded bay.
The doctor’s body was found alongside his umbrella, while his backpack was spotted 20ft away, but it is unclear why it wasn’t next to him. Max Stephens, reporter for The Telegraph, described the moments after his remains were spotted. He said he watched forensics search through the contents of the backpack.
He wrote: “For 40 minutes, forensic experts examined the scene and searched through the contents of Dr Mosley’s black backpack bag which lay around 20ft away.” A police source told the Mirror that interim autopsy findings suggest it is impossible to determine an exact cause of the 67-year-old’s death at this stage, due to the advanced state of decomposition.
They said: “The way the body was positioned suggests that first he sat down and then he died. There is no indication that he was hit by something in the head for example, or that he collapsed while walking.” Initial findings from the autopsy results also indicate the star died around 4pm on the day he went missing, according to local media.
An initial examination by a coroner ruled out foul play after examining the father-of-four’s body in Rhodes and the BBC has since reported that he died of natural causes. Police spokesperson Konstantia Dimoglidou told the broadcaster that no injuries on his body could have caused his death.
Police arrived at Agia Marina on Sunday around 20 minutes after the decomposed body was discovered lying face up, about 90 metres from the coastline. Agia Marina bar manager Ilias Tsavaris, 38, first saw Mr Mosley’s remains alongside journalists after the island’s mayor “saw something” by the fence of the bar and alerted staff. He said: “They saw it with the boat. The mayor came and saw something so that is when they called me and said ‘Hey they saw something go and check there’. They called me, they said ‘You know what we saw something from far away, can you go and check’ so I went there.
“So when I walked up I saw something like a body to make sure. You don’t see a dead body everyday, it is not a warzone, it’s summer you are supposed to have fun and swimming. He came from Pedi OK, and he walked not through the restaurant. If he had walked through there (the bar) we would have checked the cameras.” He said “rescuers had searched that area everyday with helicopters”.
At around 2.09pm local time on Sunday, firefighters arrived at the marina by boat and carried an orange stretcher and large black bag to where the body was found. Other people wearing plain clothes got off the white speed boat and took briefcases up the rocky hill.
Just moments away from the sea, it is believed Dr Mosley was looking to cool down by the water but tragically collapsed in the heat after going the wrong way home. Confirming her husband had died, Clare released a statement on Sunday where she said he had collapsed “where he couldn’t be easily seen” following “an incredible climb”.
“It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband,” she said. “We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.
“I am incredibly proud of our children, their resilience and support over the past days. My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.
“We’re taking comfort in the fact that he so very nearly made it. He did an incredible climb, took the wrong route and collapsed where he couldn’t be easily seen by the extensive search team.”
She added: “Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special. We are so grateful to the extraordinary people on Symi who have worked tirelessly to help find him. Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked.
“We’re also very grateful to the press who have dealt with us with great respect. I feel so lucky to have our children and my amazing friends. Most of all, I feel so lucky to have had this life with Michael. Thank you all.”
Wednesday, June 4: Police alerted to missing doc six hours after he left
Dr Mosley left his wife, Dr Clare Bailey, on St Nikolas beach at around 1.30pm on Wednesday. He is believed to have set off on a popular coasting walking route towards the small village of Pedi. The stroll is estimated to take around 15 minutes, with the route previously being described as a “clear path”.
The TV doctor had not returned to the accommodation where he was staying with his wife by 3pm. When she arrived back to the property, she found his phone in the same position he had left it in before he headed out. Dr Bailey alerted the police that he was missing at around 7.30pm and the rescue operation was subsequently launched.
During that day, Dr Mosley was captured on CCTV at the St Nikolas beach restaurant. Grini Kaurmadia, whose family own the establishment, said Dr Mosley used the bathroom at around 1pm on Wednesday. She said: “We can see him go into the bathroom and then leave, we don’t know where he went next. We don’t know how he got here, some people catch the water taxi from Symi. They didn’t eat here so we don’t know how long they were at the beach. We did not speak with him.”
Thursday, June 6: Locals spread the word over missing doc as mayor shares doubts that Michael is still in the area
Symi Facebook groups began receiving posts asking for local members to keep an eye out for Dr Mosley. The group “Friends of Symi” appealed for witnesses and described the health expert as a “familiar face for many British people”.
By the afternoon, firefighters and the coastguard joined forces with the police leading the search operation. The task force also employed a team of dogs, helicopters, and a thermal imaging drone to scour the area around Pedi. In the evening, the Mayor of Symi said it was “impossible” that Dr Mosley is still in the area. He said: “It is a very small, controlled area, full of people. So, if something happened to him there, we would have found him by now.”
Friday, June 7: Extreme weather warnings as divers and patrol boats join in search
On Friday, more weather warning were issued as forecasters stressed that temperatures could reach up to 48C. The search on Friday commenced at 9am, with divers later searching the waters from the afternoon.
Symi’s coast guard said: “All our patrol boats are searching … about five and also all the private boats, commercial boats know about the incident and they look for (him) also, in this area, (so this is) the private, the commercial and the patrol (boats looking).”
A spokesperson for the Greek fire service confirmed that Greek police are using sniffer dogs in the search. Later that day, the first set of CCTV images were released of the doctor walking in Pedi under an umbrella near Blue Corner cafe.
Saturday, June 8: Search resumes with firefighters forced to split up and snake warning issued
6am: This morning, a search co-ordinator confirmed that the search had resumed at around 6am. Firefighters began to examine a 6.5k radius over a mountainous area that is surrounded by sea.
Manolis Tsimpoukas, who arranges searches for missing people on the Dodecanese Islands, said there had been no sign of Dr Mosley. He described the area as “very dangerous” and said if anything was discovered then they would locate the doctor within an hour.
Shortly before 8am: Symi’s mayor Eleftherios Papakaloudoukas said there is “no chance” the search will be called off until he is found. The long-standing mayor described the area where Dr Mosley is believed to have travelled through is “difficult to pass” and is “only rocks”. He sparked further concerns when he said the area is populated by “loads” of snakes.
10.34am: Firefighters released a drone as they hiked up a mountainous area. There is no path or shade near the top of the hill that sits between Pedi bay and Agia Marina, where they suspect he may have walked. It comes after an extreme heat warning was launched in the area.
Shortly before 11am: Individual firefighters were forced to split up as they covered vast expanses of steep rocky terrain on their own. One uniformed worker said there were 10 of them searching multiple summits because it was too dangerous for large crews to work during the summer months. Firefighter Stergos Giakoumakis said: “Because it’s not so easy to bring here 100 people, especially this period, because it’s the most dangerous period. Everything is dry and it is too dangerous for firemen to search.”