Michael Mosley missing after disappearing on holiday walk

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

Just that really. Will he be found?

Who told you he felt tired? Is that in the media?

Is the path along the coast a high one, from which someone could fall into the sea?

The news reports are worded a bit strangely - was he at the beach with his wife already, then they started walking home and he realised he'd lost his phone so went back towards the beach to look?

If it's only a twenty minute walk, and he went at 1.30, why would she wait til 7.30pm to raise the alarm? I'd have gone looking for him after an hour.

It doesn't say what the terrain is like, it says it's a simple path to the beach but then other articles suggest he could've fallen from a height. None of the reports are very clear.

I can understand the Greek police's confusion about where he is, now we have a bit more information about his movements. He apparently set off to walk from St Nicholas Beach to Pedi and then from Pedi to Symi Town (where he and his wife were staying at the house of friends).

There were two possible sightings of him in Pedi, but one has been discounted (the one at 4.30 pm walking with a woman). That one didn't make a lot of sense anyway, as a) he was alone and b) he left St Nicholas Beach at 1.30 pm and it's only a 30-min walk to Pedi so he should've been in Pedi at about 2 pm. The other woman saw a man fitting his description at a bus stop, which makes sense. Why walk the 3.6 km from Pedi to Symi when there's a bus and it's baking hot?

So I guess the questions are:

1. Did he reach Pedi?
2. Was that him at the bus stop?
3. If so, did he continue on foot to Symi? OR
4. Did he take a bus? If he did, it's only 10 mins from Pedi to Symi by road.
5. Did he maybe take a taxi instead? It was 40+ degrees.
6. Did he ever arrive in Symi? Is there CCTV?

I hadn't realised the scope for foul play until this morning, but if he made it back to Pedi and was walking along the road then in addition to the heat (which clearly wasn't ideal for a walk), there is possibility of an encounter with a vehicle or another person.

@SwingingPonytail yes - I agree - there are important differences; I'm hoping there will be a different outcome. The fact that there has been no news and it's such a small place makes me think the most obvious suggestions about him falling into the sea are most likely to be right.

She might have been sleeping, she might have been out shopping, she might have been with friends, he might have been in the habit of goingbfor long walks , she may have been looking around herself, loads of reasons . Most people would naturally resist calling the police as they think the person will turn up

You see it every weekend on here when a man doesn't come home from a night out, invariably the poster is told there will turn up safely and overwhelming they are correct

I hope why didn't she raise the alarm earlier isn't going to become the new why didn't he take his ohone

Visited Symi some years ago in the summer holidays. The heat was incredible, always 30-40C. We had to walk up the Kali Strata steps in Symi town to get to our accommodation and we really struggled.
I have occasionally walked off road in different parts of Greece in the summer, the terrain is unforgiving, rocky, uneven, covered in spiky scratchy scrub. The volume of water you need to drink was phenomenal.
I feel very sad about Dr Mosley but still very surprised he took such a risk.

I guessed before reading the linked article that it was referring to Transient Global Amnesia. My mother had this a few years back - it was frightening for us but a one-off and no long term impact. I reckon hers was brought on by the stress of my DF’s worsening Alzheimer’s which she was in denial about and his was brought on by the cold water swim.

The news reports are worded a bit strangely - was he at the beach with his wife already, then they started walking home and he realised he'd lost his phone so went back towards the beach to look?

Ive not read that.

The info in the Mail (which he wrote for) says that -

He and his wife were staying with another couple on the island,

They all took a boat from their villa to the beach.

The couple and his wife decided to stay on the beach.

His phone was at the villa (he didn't have it.)

He decided to go for a walk (back to the villa?)

There is no way this is going to end well, but what is odd is that he can only have gone missing by deviating off the path. IF the path is steep he could have fallen into the sea.

I don't understand why the alarm was raised 6 hours after he went missing.
That suggests they knew he was going for a longer walk and not just a stroll.

Surely there was a discussion like 'I'm going for a walk and will see you all at the villa later today?'

Sounds like an alarming thing to happen! Glad your mum was left with no lasting ill effects

It says in the article that once you’ve had it once you’re very unlikely to have it again

Yes @BarcardiWithGadaffia. This is a capable, healthy adult man, not a child or vulnerable person. I'd imagine she waited for him to turn up, then phoned around everyone first, maybe walked back to the beach herself or around the town checking places, thought he might have been in a bar or cafe...you'd only 'raise the alarm' ie contact the police, after you'd done all those things. That's the last resort. She's probably not a panicker, and the person who is 'lost' turning up would be mortified and cross if you'd called the police out unnecessarily.

It says his wife found his phone at the accommodation. Maybe he’d already gone back and then back out again by the time she got home?

I think I would probably expect DH to be back for dinner at the latest and would likewise start to worry early evening

The coastal walk section is the '20 minutes' we keep seeing. The full walk back to Symi town (where he was staying) would take longer.

I hope why didn't she raise the alarm earlier isn't going to become the new why didn't he take his ohone

He'd forgotten/ not taken his phone. It was at the villa.

I can half-understand that. If DP and I go walking we sometimes say 'I'll take my phone' if we don't want to carry two (this is a short walk in the UK by the way on public tracks.)

But if one of us goes alone, we always make sure we have our phone.

It's unlikely, but it can be reoccurring for some people.

It says his wife found his phone at the accommodation. Maybe he’d already gone back and then back out again by the time she got home?

I think the way it's worded is that he never took his phone, possibly relying on the fact she had one and as a couple, they decided taking one to the beach when they were swimming was enough.

But yes, it needs clearing up.

It says in the Guardian they checked CCTV and the sighting in Pedi wasn’t him

I think the transient amnesia thing is interesting. The last time it happened to him was after a dip in the sea. He had been swimming in the sea before he went walking so I am wondering if there's been a repeat episode in the event of similar circumstances. Rare for it to happen again, but it does happen.

But if he did have that this time, and was simply 'lost' but SAFE somewhere, he'd be found and there is so much publicity that th e locals would know who he was.

I think what is odd, is that his family or their friends aren't saying much - or we're not hearing it.

Surely he'd have said where he was going and when he expected to catch up with them again later that day?

Did he set off to walk back the villa?
Did he take any water with him?
What time did they expect him to meet them?

Most couples would say something like 'I'm going get some exercise and walk back to the villa. I'll take the coastal path and see you later.'

Or, they'd say they are going to go to explore, off the path.

In which case someone would surely ask if they had enough water as it was very hot and they needed to be careful.

We're not being told very much.

It’s just common sense to look at Google maps to see the nature of the route back to his accommodation as the media descriptions vary widely. The only way to know for sure is to actually have a look at it.
…and I think it’s perfectly natural to want to try to understand how a fellow, well loved and respected human being, can seemingly just vanish.

Even if that did recur, it wouldn’t make him more prone to an accident or less likely to be found. It’s memory loss but the person can still function. I read about a case where it happened to someone as they were driving, alone. They were still able to drive safely but had no idea where they were going or why.

Edited to add - so he maybe wouldn’t remember where he was headed or that his wife was still at the beach but he would know that because of the heat that he needed to drink water and get to somewhere with shade. He would almost certainly have kept walking till he got to a destination. My mother wasn’t even aware that there was anything wrong and if my sister hadn’t visited that afternoon she would probably have spent the rest of the day pottering about the house and been fine the next day and we wouldn’t ever have known it had happened. Which now I think of it, is quite alarming and suggests it could happen more frequently but if no witnesses - no diagnosis!

What seems clear is they are looking in the wrong place
he could have become confused if in a fugue state and be anywhere- even walked back to beach and on from there
Hopefully some more search teams can be deployed as soon as possible

You are misunderstanding and proving my point at the same time

We all know he didn't take his phone, what we don't need to utterly random information about whether anyone else takes their phone with them

My mother suffered TGA last year at the age of 82. She’s relatively fit, walks 3-4 miles a day, gardens etc but has lost huge chunks of her memory which we doubt will come back,now. She has also fallen smack on her face twice since it happened.

I disagree, he seems like someone who likes a challenge. He did PPE at Oxford, worked in the city, got bored, studied medicine and immediately started working in TV.