Presumed body of missing British doctor and TV presenter Michael Mosley found on Greek island

A body which would be that of Michael Mosley, missing British doctor and TV presenter was found Sunday morning on the Greek island where he was last seen, police said.

The body was found on a rocky coast by searchers on a private boat, about a 30-minute walk from the village of Pedi where Mosley was reportedly seen Wednesday before disappearing, according to several officials, including a police spokesman. who spoke conditionally. of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. Formal identification was still pending. But a police source told CBS News partner BBC that the person had been dead “for several days.”

Mosley disappeared Wednesday afternoon on the Greek island of Symi after going for a walk. Her disappearance last week sparked a massive search operation involving the coastguard, police and firefighters, who used drones, a police dog and a helicopter as they worked through several days of high temperatures to locate it.

Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island's mayor, told The Associated Press that he was on the boat with members of the media when they saw a body about 20 meters above Agia Beach Marina, shortly after 10 a.m.

“We zoomed in with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said.

The mayor said the body appeared to have fallen down a steep slope, coming to rest against a fence and lying face up with some rocks on top. The body was holding a leather bag in one hand, said Antonis Mystiloglou, a cameraman for public broadcaster ERT, who was also on the boat.

A coroner has already examined the body, the BBC reported. Police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou told the broadcaster that authorities had to rule out the possibility of foul play.

“We need to have a first look at the causes of death and know if [it] preceded the person falling to the ground,” Dimoglidou told the BBC.

Mosley, 67, is well known in Britain for his regular appearances on television and radio and for his column in the Daily Mail newspaper. He was nominated in 2022 for an Emmy Award for his work as executive producer of the BBC science documentary “The Human Face,” which featured stars like Elizabeth Hurley, Pierce Brosnan and David Attenborough.

Outside the UK, Mosley is also known for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet”, which he co-wrote with journalist Mimi Spencer. The book proposed the so-called “5:2 diet,” which promised to help people lose weight quickly by minimizing their calorie intake two days a week while eating healthily the other five days.

He then introduced a rapid weight loss program and made numerous films on diet and exercise.

Mosley often pushed her body to extremes to see the effects of her diet and also lived with tapeworms in her guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary “Infested! Living With Parasites.”

Mosley has four children with his wife Clare Bailey Mosley, who is also a physician, author and health columnist.