TV doctor’s body was found on rocks yards from a popular beach bar, but why did it take so long to find him and why did he veer off course?
Victoria Ward
Tributes poured in on Sunday for television doctor Michael Mosley after his body was found on the Greek island of Symi following a four day search.
Dr Mosley’s body was found on rocks just a stone’s throw from a popular beach bar, raising questions about why it took so long to find him and how he had managed to veer off course.
Why did he not take his mobile phone?
Dr Mosley set off to walk back to his holiday villa alone and in intense heat, with no mobile phone or means of contacting anyone.
He is said to have left his phone at the holiday villa.
It is relatively unusual to set out for the day without a mobile phone, particularly when attempting a relatively difficult walk alone.
Had he taken his phone he would likely have been able to raise the alarm or otherwise be located by rescue teams via its signal.
Why did the search teams who scoured the area not find him earlier?
Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, Dr Mosley’s wife, said her husband had taken the wrong route before collapsing where he could not easily be seen.
However, the body was spotted by a television camera crew from a boat around 300 metres from the shore.
Ilias Tsavaris, who manages the local bar, said rescuers had searched that area every day with helicopters and that firefighters had also walked down the rocky slope just a few metres above where the body was discovered.
On Saturday, a fire brigade helicopter is said to have hovered over the spot where the body was found.
How long was his body there?
CCTV footage from Agia Marina shows Dr Mosley walking close to the spot where his body was found two hours and 15 minutes after he left the Saint Nicholas restaurant.
This suggests his body may have lay undiscovered just yards from a beach resort and restaurant for five days before it was found.
Did he have a repeat attack of the amnesia he experienced in 2019?
In 2019, Dr Mosley revealed that he had temporarily lost his memory after swimming in the freezing cold sea in Cornwall.
“I didn’t have any obvious signs of physical or facial weakness, nor was my speech slurred – both telltale signs of a TIA (transient ischaemic attack) and a stroke,” he said. “I was lucid and the only thing that was obviously wrong with me was the fact that I had no memory of how I’d got there, or what had happened to me.”
Dr Mosley went to hospital where doctors said he had likely experienced something called transient global amnesia, and that it was brought on by cold water swimming.”
He said he would not go cold water swimming alone again.
Why did he set off alone in such intense heat without food or water?
There are contradictory reports about whether Dr Mosley took a bottle of water with him on his walk.
Regardless, he was captured on CCTV walking past a cafe in the village of Pedi and could have stopped for a rest from the heat, to rehydrate or buy some food.
It is not known whether he had any money or bank cards with him.
At which point did he take a wrong turn?
It may never be known how Dr Mosley ended up veering off course as he attempted to make his way back from Saint Nicholas beach to his holiday villa in Symi Town.
The location where his body was found was more than two miles from his intended destination.
Although he is known to have made it to Pedi, it is not known whether he took the coastal path all the way to the Agia Marina or whether he left the path and headed inland before arriving at the marina from a northwesterly direction.
Did he know he was so close to the bar?
Dr Mosley’s wife said she took comfort from the fact that he “so very nearly made it”.
But it is not known whether Dr Mosley was aware that he was so close to getting help at the popular bar.
His body was found next to a chain link fence that surrounds the perimeter of the bar.
It is not yet known whether he walked around the full perimeter before collapsing or made an attempt to access the restaurant area, which is thronging with tourists from 9am until 7pm most days.
Related Topics
- Michael Mosley,
- Greece,
- Rhodes
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