Thread 2 - Michael Mosley missing after disappearing on holiday walk

[Rubbishconfession]

Following on from thread 1, linked below.

Let's hope the CCTV / sighting in town gives a glimmer of home that he made the walk from the beach to town ok.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5090880-michael-moseley-missing-after-disappearing-on-holiday-walk?page=10&reply=135846185

People are seriously overthinking about the mobile phone

If he took that route, in 40 degree heat... 😪

Yeah the mobile phone isn’t relevant beyond “no they can’t trace him via his mobile as he hasn’t got it with him”.

My phone died the other night while out alone.
I got a taxi but felt vulnerable and was charged 50 euros for a 4 minute journey!
I just wasn't sure of the exact way back.

They squandered precious time assuming he fell into the water during the St Nicholas Beach-Pedi walk. This was broadcast all over the news yesterday and virtually no mention was made of the fact that his intended destination was 1hr away from the beach. There was a throwaway comment in one of the news articles about how he could not have gotten lost after Pedi because the area is so urbanised. This biased media reporting was essentially clickbait getting people to wonder how he got lost on a 1km stretch of coastal path. A single Youtube video proved that it's virtually impossible to slip into the water during that hike. Even though it was steep, the side going into the water had so many tall rocks that it would be physically impossible to fall in. Going by Google Maps, there is a maximum stretch of 50-100m where the path runs closer to the edge but it's hard to tell without being there.

Then lo and behold today they find proof he made it to Pedi just fine and suddenly the reporting pivots to how treacherous the paths between Pedi and Symi are. This is tragic because had he really been lost in the mountains, then the first 24 hours are critical and they were repeatedly searching the wrong spot. Surely one of the locals must have voiced the fact that there are multiple paths leading to Symi and it's very possible he decided to take a rural/scenic hike inside of going along the road.

Yeah that is the impression I have been getting from the news. Every news bulletin has had a story where they are interviewing the authorities/police out there, and they are really concerned, and working really hard to find Michael. They are genuinely very concerned for him, and have been putting every resource they have into finding him. They've been amazing.

Also, I have not see on any news bulletin, that the search will be called off in a couple of days.

Only in that if he planned to walk cross country and solo, he’d probably have taken it out with him. Suggests to me he didn’t intend to walk home alone. You don’t really need your phone if you’re sticking to a group.

I think he didn’t fancy the boat trip back and was told to follow that coast path to Pedi then hop on a bus home. That would make the best sense out of what we know so far. Bus wasn’t an option, couldn’t ring anyone, set off walking the “scenic” route and something went wrong. Occam’s razor.

@User5463463 I suspect his wife and friends told police he was walking then bussing. Therefore the assumption was he never made it to the bus stop which narrowed the search. The priority would not have included a different area when the alarm was first raised.

There's this story about a guy who went missing 5 years ago that mentions the 5 day search limit from Sky News:

news.sky.com/story/missing-michael-mosley-son-of-man-who-disappeared-in-2019-urges-tv-doctors-family-to-keep-up-search-13149413

@Christ0nABike exactly. This reminds me so much of the Nicola Bullley threads where there were so many weird and wonderful theories and it was blatantly clear the most likely thing had happened ie she fell in the water. Theories about rogue taxis and 'illegal' immigrants ( seriously) are spurious and offensive.

There will always be the cynical minds that are suspicious of anyone foreign, and condemn anything they do.

Greece is no back water. But the islands are limited. All resources that could help have now reached Symi. The nation's news is fully covering it, and a whole country hopes and prays for a good outcome.

This is the risk people take when visiting these areas though.

Where are people getting that they have not yet searched possible Pedi-Symi routes? Seems highly unlikely to me that searches to date would have focused exclusively on the Beach-Pedi stretch. Surely not?

I mean there is only a maximum of one bus an hour in each direction, with a gap in the afternoon. You’d imagine they would have to consider non-bus routes early in the investigation.

It’s laughable that people seem to think British public services in an equivalently remote area would be any better. Some people are stuck in the 1970s in terms of how they see the U.K. in relation to other European countries.

They have searched, but probably not in first day or so, until it came to light that he’d been spotted in Pedi. Heat seeking equipment will only pick up alive bodies in that heat (and probably only at night when the temp drops) so it was quite possibly too late to find him by anything other than eyes on the ground.

@Christ0nABike but they had suggested sightings in Pedi very early on, even if unconfirmed. In life-threatening temperatures you wouldn’t wait for confirmation by CCTV to start the search beyond Pedi (edited: to run in parallel with the search of the track leading to Pedi).

There's been a recent update in the independent last few mins. He was seen going up a mountain path which is a long route to where he needed to go.

He was reported missing on Wednesday night so I imagine Thursday searches focussed on beach to Pedi and the sea along that coastal path.

There’s no airport on the island so trained searchers and equipment would have to be helicoptered or boated in, some from nearby Rhodes but the rest from Athens, hundreds of miles away. It’s not something they can scramble within an hour.

You're right. Try some parts of Scotland for example - no public transport at all! UK is no better, unless you happen to live in a bustling town or city.

If he went up a track similar to the one in that video I'd imagine it would be incredibly easy to break a leg. If that's the case - and he was in shade and had a reasonable supply of water - he could still be found. But it really has to be soon. Expecting the worst but praying for the best.

Of course. I am not criticising anyone. I just don’t know if there is a reliable factual source for the notion that Pedi-Symi is yet to be searched.

I see the Independent has now lifted the same text that the Telegraph lifted from Yahoo and the Mirror about the new “mountain path” lead. I still wonder whether the ultimate source of this is reliable.

I agree, it's incredibly unfair to starting finger pointing at small places with far fewer resources than a large westernised, industrialised country.

We know this when we go to far flung places. It's a risk, always has been.

If you suddenly develop a brain clot in Indonesia your nearest specialist hospital could be hundreds/thousands of miles and hours away. It's a risk we all take when we travel.

They are doing their very best and I bet all the locals are looking out too. Just because the 'official' search can do no more, doesn't mean a local search can't continue.

Two different paths. Short path from the beach to Pedi is rough and uneven but busy and unlikely to be lethal.

Mountain path from Pedi to Symi is twisty, takes 3 hours and peters out often. I think that is the path the police are now considering searching as it seems he didn't get onto the 2pm bus. The reporting is very confused and confusing.

Ahhh the whole thing makes me so sad. Hoping with all my heart for a miracle.

Though the UK does have Royal Air Mountain Rescue which has saved many people, think one of their permanent stations is in Scotland. Yes, aspects of life in the UK are a shoddy disaster, but we do manage to do some things well.

No, the first path was 20-30 mins and taken by many tourists. He was seen in town after he'd done that part of the journey. The second path that he might have taken was a 3 hour trek over mountains which almost no one takes, and certainly not in that heat. It's confusing because it has been very unclearly reported.