The body of British journalist, health guru and TV personality dr. Michael Mosley (67) was found against a fence of a resort on the Greek island of Symi on Sunday, four days after he went missing.
Mosley and his wife, Clare Bailey, were on holiday when he went for a walk and never returned.
Petros Vassilakis, police chief of the southern Aegean region, said a TV crew on a boat spotted the body near the rocky coastal area. “The team filmed in the area where (Mosley) disappeared on Wednesday when he was on his own in the heat on a coastal walk.”
Mosley worked as an investment banker before qualifying as a medical doctor. After this he was a successful presenter, documentary producer, journalist and writer.
Bailey says her husband undertook a tough climb, took the wrong route and collapsed in a place where he could not easily be seen by the search team.
“It is devastating to lose my Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband,” she says in a statement.
She thanked the “exceptional” people of Symi, who worked tirelessly to find Mosley, “some from dawn to dusk”.
Aristides Miaoulis, ERT reporter, said in a live broadcast that one of the crew’s cameramen “saw something strange near the fence, 50 meters from the sea”. They found Mosley there.
Lefteris Papakalodoukas, mayor of Symi, was with the crew when they came upon Mosley. He confirmed to ERT that it was the body of the journalist they had been looking for for several days.
Papakalodoukas said Symi had recently been experiencing “unbearable heat” and that the area where Mosley was last seen was difficult to pass.
Despina Nathena, the coroner, said Mosley’s death “does not appear to be linked to a crime”. However, the broadcaster reported that the cause of his death could not be precisely determined due to the delay in finding his body.
In the first week of June, Greece experienced record temperatures with the mercury on Symi hovering at 39.3 °C.
Mosley has made science and history documentaries and carved a niche as an on-camera health expert and author of best-selling diet books. He was known for popularizing the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet and for British TV shows such as Trust Me, I’m a Doctor and his BBC radio podcast Just One Thing.
He regularly appeared on BBC’s The One Show and ITV’s This Morning appeared and was a columnist for the Daily Mail.
Tom Watson, a former deputy leader of the UK’s main opposition Labor Party, who lost weight with the help of one of Mosley’s books, paid tribute to a “hero who practiced courageous, science-based journalism”.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, described Mosley as a brilliant science broadcaster and presenter who could make the most complex subjects simple and “inspired us all to live healthier, fuller lives”.
