Michael Mosley: Body found in search for TV doctor on Greek island of Symi
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 used a mobile phone to zoom in on the image, and could see it was a body lying on the rocky slope.
Read more:
Updates and tributes after body found
Who was Michael Mosley?
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 Antonis Mystiloglou a cameraman with state TV ERT who was on the boat with the mayor.
An umbrella is also understood to have been found close to the body.
A view of the area where the body of Michael Mosley was found Pic: Reuters
The area had been searched on foot by firefighters and from above via helicopter on Saturday, according to local bar manager Agia Marina, who was one of the first people to find the body.
Mr Marina went to investigate the area by the fence after something unusual was spotted in the images taken from the boat. He said: “They called me, they said ‘You know what we saw something from far away, can you go and check’ so I went there.
“So when I walked up I saw something like a body to make sure. You don’t see a dead body everyday, it is not a warzone, it’s summer you are supposed to have fun and swimming.”
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 carried out an initial report on-site before the body was removed via boat. A post-mortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Body found at ‘inaccessible’ location
Emergency services lifting an empty stretcher off a boat. Pic: Yui Mok/PA
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.
A hike from the point Mosley was last sighted at to the beach where the body was found would normally have taken around half an hour on foot, but the extremely hot weather – reaching levels of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last few days – would have made the journey much more arduous.
Mosley’s wife, Dr Bailey Mosley, and the couple’s four children will lay flowers at the place the body was found on Monday.
Earlier this week she had described the days since her husband’s disappearance as “the longest and most unbearable“.
Mosley’s three sons, Alex, Dan and Jack, and daughter Kate had travelled to the Greek island earlier this week to assist in the search for their father.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The local cameraman who spotted Michael Mosley’s body
The alert had first been raised when the 67-year-old doctor failed to arrive back at their friends’ home in Symi Town, with an appeal and photo shared in a local Facebook group, asking “Have you seen this man?”
The presenter had reportedly set off on a walk from Saint Nikolas Beach at about 1.30pm local time.
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.
He did not have his mobile phone with him.
Dr Michael Mosley with wife Clare. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The doctor’s agent confirmed he was missing to the PA news agency on Thursday.
Rescue teams had been working on the assumption he may have mistakenly headed towards the rocky hills behind the marina.
Tributes poured in from fellow celebrities, including Jamie Oliver, Dr Phil Hammond, Professor Alice Roberts and Saleyha Ahsan.
Mosley’s former Trust Me I’m A Doctor co-presenter Saleyha Ahsan told Sky News Mosley was a “national treasure” who would always take time to talk to people off-stage.
She said he truly “cared about the health of the nation”, adding: “Michael’s advice, the 5:2 diet, that has really changed the approach of so many people about their health. He lived and breathed his work. He was an inspiration.”
Another of Mosley’s Trust Me, I’m A Doctor co-presenters, Dr Phil Hammond, said Mosley was always up for trying things out himself, and was fearless in his mission to improve people’s health.
Dr Hammond told Sky News: “One of the big [things] he’ll be remembered for is not just his popularising an explanation of science, but the fact that he would experiment himself… He was a person prepared to put his body on the line to test out science, and I can’t quite believe he’s gone”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Dr Phil Hammond says that Dr Michael Mosley ‘will be enormously missed’
TV chef Oliver said he was “devastated” by the news, calling Mosley “a wonderfully sweet, kind and gentle man” who did “such a lot of good for public health with his TV shows and research”.
He called the TV doctor “a curious investigator, producer and presenter” who he said “changed the conversation around many public health issues for the better.” Oliver concluded: “He will be sadly missed.”
Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, called Mosley as a “hero”. The politician, who credited Mosley’s book The Fast Diet with playing a part in his 7-stone weight loss, wrote on X: “It’s hard to describe how upset I am by this news.
“Through courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people get well and healthy. I’m one of them.”
Author, TV writer and former doctor Adam Kay said it was “desperately sad,” adding “May his memory be a blessing”.
Professor Roberts, who had known Mosley for many years, and said she had seen him at the Hay Festival just two weeks ago, wrote on X: “The fragility of life is so shocking… I can’t believe he’s gone”.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News App. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
Kate’s ’emotional’ words for tearful tennis star
Music festival cancelled as headliner pulls out
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Read more from Sky News:
Amber heat health alert issued
Two women die after BMW crashes into care home
It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike