Missing Michael Mosley: Son of man who disappeared in 2019 urges TV doctor’s family to keep up search
The son of a man who went missing on a Greek island in 2019 has urged Michael Mosley’s family not to give up their search.
The TV doctor disappeared on Wednesday while on holiday on the Greek island of Symi after going for a walk from Saint Nikolas Beach, with divers, police, firefighters and sniffer dogs all deployed in the search for him.
CCTV images have emerged showing Mr Mosley half an hour after he left the beach and then vanished.
Michael Mosley went missing on Wednesday
A CCTV image of Mr Mosley
The case has parallels to that of John Tossell, a 78-year-old man from Bridgend who went missing on the Greek island of Zakynthos five years ago this month.
Mr Tossell was on the third day of his holiday with his partner, Gillian, when he disappeared after going on a walk to visit a monastery on Mount Skopos.
When he did not return, a search began for Mr Tossell, who was described by his son as a “fit man” and more than able to make the trip up the mountain without a struggle.
The last confirmed sighting was of him on CCTV passing a hotel and heading out of town towards Vassilikos.
When the local authorities called off the search after five days, Mr Tossell’s daughter Katy launched a fundraising campaign, using the £7,000 it made to bring the Western Beacons Mountain Rescue team to the island to keep searching.
The group found no sign of Mr Tossell, with his family no closer to solving the mystery of his disappearance five years on.
This week’s news about Mr Mosley, known for appearing on programmes like This Morning and The One Show, has sparked fresh memories for Mr Tossell’s family, not least due to the similarity between the two cases.
John Tossell’s son Gary
‘Same story but a different person’
“When I read the story it’s like a cut and paste of my father,” Mr Tossell’s son Gary told Sky News.
“He went for a walk and he vanished into thin air. As a family we got together and said this is surreal. It’s the same story but a different person.”
He added: “I wish nothing but love to the Mosley family as I know exactly what they’re going through and it must be awful for them out there at the minute. I want to tell them not to give up.”
Read more:
What we know about Michael Mosley’s last known movements
Mr Tossell’s family have refused to end their search but suspect that either foul play or potential third-party involvement mean they’ll never get the answers they desire.
“My dad was wearing a royal blue T-shirt and the police drove up the path with their blue lights flashing. They never got out of the car,” added his son.
“They knocked it on the head at 11pm and the next day they just went out walking, it was like a walk in the park for them. There was no intensity to their efforts.
“They said that there was a team coming from Athens with dogs and specialists but for some reason that got turned off at the last minute.
“Five days later they stopped searching entirely. Five days only. They said he must have left the island but when he left the hotel he had 10 euros and a bottle of water – you can’t get far with that.”
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He added: “We all think as a family that foul play must have been involved. Whether it’s a mugging gone wrong or a car accident and he’s been removed. Human beings don’t just vanish.”
Mr Tossell’s disappearance was picked up by an investigative crime journalist with her own TV show in Greece that looks to solve cases of missing people.
Fos sto Tounel, which translates as Light in the Tunnel, attempted to piece together the final movements that Mr Tossell made in the hope of uncovering new information, though the show failed to do so.
The Tossell family pushed for a criminal probe into the Welshman’s disappearance and have urged anyone who went on holiday to Zakynthos in June 2019 to check if Mr Tossell appeared in the background of any holiday pictures.
An international manhunt is under way for the husband of a murdered woman, whose body was found in the boot of a car.
The body of Harshita Brella was found in east London on Thursday, tens of miles away from her home in Corby.
On Sunday, Northamptonshire Police said they were looking for Pankaj Lamba – who they believe has left the country.
Sky News understands she had been under the protection of a court order designed for victims of domestic abuse.
“Our inquiries lead us to suspect that Harshita was murdered in Northamptonshire earlier this month by her husband Pankaj Lamba,” said chief inspector Paul Cash.
“We suspect Lamba transported Harshita’s body from Northamptonshire to Ilford by car.”
“Fast track” enquires were made after the force was contacted on Wednesday by someone concerned about Ms Brella’s welfare. After she failed to answer the door at her home in Skegness Walk, Corby, a missing person investigation was launched.
Her body was found inside the boot of a vehicle in Brisbane Road in the Ilford in the early hours of Thursday morning.
A post mortem – conducted at Leicester Royal Infirmary on Friday – established she had been murdered.
Harshita Brella, 24, from Corby. Her body was found in a car in east London. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
More than 60 detectives are working on the case, with lines of enquiry including going house to house and property searches, as well as looking at CCTV and ANPR.
“We are of course continuing to appeal for any information that will help us piece together exactly what happened as we work to get justice for Harshita,” said chief inspector Cash.
“I urge anyone listening to or reading this statement, that if you saw anything suspicious in the past week or have any information, no matter how small, please contact us. We would always rather receive well-meaning information that turns out to be nothing as opposed to not receiving it all.”
Pankaj Lamba. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
Force referred to police watchdog
On Saturday, Northamptonshire Police said it had made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct due to previous contact between the force and the victim.
Northamptonshire Police previously said officers had been conducting investigations at three locations: Skegness Walk and Sturton Walk in Corby and Brisbane Road, Ilford, where Ms Brella’s body was found.
East Midlands Special Operations Major Crime Unit (EMSOU) and Northamptonshire Police said they were working “around the clock to establish the circumstances behind her death, including the exact location and timeframe in which it took place”.
State-of-the-art technology has been used to create a voice for King Richard III – giving him a Yorkshire accent.
A digital avatar of the medieval king’s head went on display in front of excited history fans at York Theatre Royal.
Richard III was king of England from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, at the age of 32.
His remains were found in a car park in Leicester in 2012 by historian Philippa Langley.
Speaking about the recreation, she said: “We’ve got leading experts in their fields who have been working on this for 10 years and so everything has been meticulously researched, meticulously evidenced, so you are seeing the most accurate portrayal of Richard III”.
A team based at Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University created the avatar based on the reconstruction of Richard III’s head with the help of a craniofacial expert.
His voice has been created by Professor David Crystal, a leading linguist in 15th-century pronunciation. He admitted that it’s impossible to know exactly how he spoke, but this is as close as they will get.
The king was born in Northampton but spent a lot of his life in Yorkshire. His parents were also from the north of England.
Vocal coach Yvonne Morley-Chisholm spent a decade researching how the monarch would have sounded. She worked with the actor Thomas Dennis who was chosen as his body and face were such a a good physical match.
Speaking to Sky News, she said people will be shocked at how different he sounded compared with traditional portrayals of the king on stage and screen.
The coach and actor also examined the king’s letters and diary so that “as you pronounced a word that’s how you would write it”.
Read more from Sky News:
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The voice shows the change in pronunciation over the centuries – from regional variations to the Queen’s English.
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History fans at the unveiling were delighted with the accent, with one telling Sky News: “Northerners are known to be happy, positive, all those lovely qualities.”
Born in Northampton but a northerner through and through, technology has brought the king’s speech back to life
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