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Michael Mosley: Body found in search for TV doctor on Greek island of Symi

June 9, 2024

A body has been found in the search for TV doctor Michael Mosley, who went missing on a Greek island.

The body was found close to a cave complex beside Agia Marina on Symi, around 10 metres from the sea, and did not appear to show any signs of injury, the mayor of Symi Lefteris Papakalodoukas told Sky News.

Mr Papakalodoukas said he had been in a boat on the way to search in a cave with members of the media when they saw something on the rocks above the beach.

He says they filmed as they went, then analysed the footage from the cameras and could see it was a body.

Separately, the mayor said that the body appeared to have fallen down a steep slope, stopping against a fence and lying face-up with a few rocks on top of it.

The body had a leather bag in one hand, according to a cameraman with state TV ERT who was on the boat with the mayor.

An umbrella is also understood to have been found alongside the body.

A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, said that formal identification was pending.

A coroner from the larger island of Rhodes will carry out an initial report on-site before the body is removed, and a post-mortem will then take place to determine the cause of death.

The body was found on the opposite side from the Saint Nicholas beach where Mosley had left his wife and friends to go for a walk on Wednesday.

While a hike from the beach to the other side of the bay would normally have taken around half-an-hour on foot, the extremely hot weather – reaching levels of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last few days – would have made the journey more arduous.

An appeal had been shared in a local Facebook group after the dad-of-four failed to return home on Wednesday afternoon.

The presenter had reportedly set off on a walk from Saint Nikolas Beach at about 1.30pm local time but failed to return home.

Mosley was then captured on several CCTV cameras walking through the town of Pedi, around 1.2km away, and then near a yacht club in Marina Symi, further round the island. This was the last known sighting of him.

His wife raised the alarm on Wednesday evening after he failed to return home.

Rescue teams had been working on the assumption he may have mistakenly headed towards the hills behind the marina.

The doctor’s agent confirmed he was missing to the PA news agency on Thursday.

Michael Mosley’s career

Mosley was known for appearing on television programmes like This Morning and The One Show.

He was one of the presenters of the series Trust Me, I’m A Doctor on the BBC – and also hosted its Just One Thing health podcast.

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

Mosley was also credited for the rising popularity of the 5:2 diet for losing weight, which involves fasting for two days per week.

He was a columnist for the Daily Mail and has made a number of films about diet and exercise.

More recently, he presented two series for Channel 4, Secrets Of Your Big Shop and Who Made Britain Fat?

His programmes have received nominations for RTS and Emmy awards, and he has previously been named “medical journalist of the year” by the British Medical Association.

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