Michele Bourda, 59, from Glasgow, suddenly vanished from a sunbed in Kavala while she was on a two-week holiday in Greece with her husband Chris who is angry at the police response
A husband of a British woman found dead in Greece is angry at the slowness of the response by police when she went missing on a beach and their claim she “disappeared with an unknown man”.
Michele Bourda, 59, suddenly vanished from a sunbed in Kavala on August 1 while her husband Chris, 66, also slept on Ofrynio beach. The couple, from Glasgow, were on a two-week holiday and had gone for a swim before taking a nap on some nearby sun loungers. When Chris woke up, Michele was no were to be seen and yet her belongings are understood to have been left on the beach.
And now finally a body has been found which has yet to be formally identified, but police believe it to be that of Michele due to the tankini she was wearing when she vanished last month. It was located on a small, privately owned island called Fidonisi around 40km from where she was last seen.
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Officers told Mr Bourda over a call on Thursday that they are “99% sure” it is her and Chris said her body was found without a head, half-naked and partially eaten by fish.
He is angry that the police did not start a search earlier for his wife and made the “rubbish” claim that she had disappeared with a man.
“They have found her body. Sadly I was expecting this. The problem is the harbour police did not start their search until late at night and I don’t know what effect that had. They said they couldn’t find her, they claimed she had disappeared with an unknown man, but this was rubbish,” Chris told MailOnline.
“I think the harbour police really didn’t do anything and next time something happens like this they should think about it. It shouldn’t take them three hours to write up a missing person’s report before starting the search.
“They said there were no signs she had drowned, that there was no body, that she was following someone else. But I knew this was not the case. She would not have gone off without her money, her glasses or her medication.”
It comes after Chris told how he was laughed at when he frantically pleaded for help after noticing Michele had vanished from the sunbed. The panicked husband asked a waiter at a restaurant beside the beach if he had seen Michele, and claims he was mocked before eventually convincing a shopkeeper to call the police.
Chris said he did not see a single police officer on the beach the day his wife went missing – a claim echoed by a fellow hotel guest.
And slamming the Greek police for their lack of urgency, Chris stated: “I had only been to the prosecution centre yesterday to complain about how the police and harbour police have handled this. It will be easy to see when I called the telephone line and how long they didn’t do anything for.”
Michele had been “quite happy” before she disappeared, said Chris previously, who told how he had gone to sleep on a sun bed and woke to find her not there.
“She had seemed quite happy that day. We went for a short swim as it was windy and there were a few waves. She then ordered a few crepes and said we could have a nice sleep after,” he said. “Unfortunately, I fell asleep first and when I woke up she wasn’t there.”
He said Michele had suffered on and off from episodes of depression and anxiety over a number of years. The mum-of-one had briefly gone missing while the couple were living in London after she was made redundant and fell into a depressive episode. But thanks to the swift actions of police, Michele was located that night.
She fell ill again in February but was recovering and had been in good spirits. The Mirror has contacted Greek police and the Foreign Office for comment.