That really is weird. It makes the original sighting of someone who claimed they ‘recognised him’ at a bus stop and asked for directions seem much more likely to be true. I expect they excluded it as there was no logic as to how he could have thought himself lost.
I think authorities were assuming he hadn’t reached Pedi because there’s no obvious way he could have had an accident from that point onwards (it’s one road so almost impossible to get lost, not cliff side and lined with houses, low traffic and low crime…an incredibly safe walk). They were assuming he must have fallen from the coastal path.
If he had fallen, he would also have been unlikely to have ended up in the sea, the rock face isn’t that steep, it would catch his fall and he’d get stuck on the rocks. They probably even with heat seeking equipment would find it hard to trace him if he’s in a well hidden spot as the ground would be so hot it would emulate body temperature. He may also have crawled intentionally into a crevice in the rocks to escape searing heat if injured.
Now that he’s confirmed as making it to Pedi…and the story from 2019 about an episode of short term memory loss…I think he may have had a similar episode and become confused. Then for whatever reason he’s headed off onto some side path or across rocky ground, become disorientated or trapped somewhere and collapsed from heat exhaustion. Either that or he decided to get into the sea and swim wherever he thought was the right direction.
The massive problem for the search team, based on my theory, is that he may not have been behaving logically. Meaning he could have decided to just scale a mountain in the wrong direction or swam as far as he could get away from shore. That’s probably why they are widening their search effort…because he’s not going to have had the obvious ‘accident and fallen on the coast path’ accident which would have been the first (most obvious) assumption. There is also the small chance that he’s got into a car (and for some reason the driver hasn’t come forward) and taken a lift somewhere and then got out and got lost, the south of the island is a couple of roads and mostly just rocks. He’s unlikely to have used any form or public transport as that would have been checked quickly.
They might have done this already…but they really need to ask the person who was wearing similar clothes in the area on that day to come forward and confirm all their whereabouts and timings and who they spoke to etc. That would help with the issue of working out which witness sightings are likely most reliable. It doesn't appear obvious as of yet that any of these small number of witness sightings are just time-wasters. With such a small population the people who make things up ‘to be involved’ in the police drama of it all gets much less
I don’t think suicide or other intentional disappearance at all. Going to the beach with his wife, who urgently needs to contact them other than their kids…maybe he leaves his phone behind if with her (men don’t always want things in pockets that they can loose easily, especially in the heat wearing loose fitting shorts or a beach). The decision to walk back alone isn’t strange either. The reporting has been muddled and made it sound like he went off on some hike alone…but it’s most likely that he just enjoyed walking more than the others present and enjoyed less time lying around on the beach. It wasn’t considered a dangerous path and should have been a simple walk with no way to get lost. When splitting with the group it would have been logical to have taken his wife’s phone for safety…but men often don’t think like that, he had no reason to think it was unsafe and it was a fairly well used path, plus we now know from the cctv that he navigated the coastal path safely, so in theory if he got into an difficulty after that point he had plenty of places, cafes, shops, houses…that he could have called on for help. There were witnesses on the beach…if there had been a huge row it would have been noticed. He also works with his wife and has a marriage of nearly 40 years…so they don’t seem the likely types to have public rows or sudden relationship dramas, they were also staying with friends…people don’t generally do that if they can’t behave themselves calmlas a couple…they would be in the privacy a hotel.
The theory of the intentionally running off with a mistress also doesn’t make any sense. It’s not easy to get off such a small island unnoticed, he wouldn’t be able to ever go back to the uk, plus by disappearing on holiday he’s made himself front page news, possibly in Greece as well…plus he wouldn’t be able to contact his children again, or work in anything he’s qualified in without any identity documents. If he wanted to end his marriage he would just do it in the uk as quietly as possible to protect his career and relationship with children as much as possible.
But…I wouldn’t rule out the sighting of him ‘with a woman’. If he’s had a memory issue he could be easily led by someone he got talking to. Again, if this is real sighting or just someone in similar clothes, any woman who was with a man dressed similar should come forward to help rule in or out that sighting. With his general personality I think he is the type that would stop and chat to random people if he’s in no rush on holiday, especially if they recognised him he would want to be polite and maintain his image. So with a memory loss incident he would be also be easy prey to someone wanting to do him intentional harm, but in that location it seems unlikely to have been that type of incident.
The area has a small population, even with low cctv coverage, if enough people co-operate they should be able to work through witness statements properly.
Sadly, I think the chances of him being alive after this amount of time are now getting very slim, dehydration alone would be deadly without other injuries if he did just walk off in an illogical direction. My prediction is that they will find his body within the next few days, but police won’t have an explanation of how he ended up in that location as he will be somewhere illogical. I think they’ll find him on land not in the water.
His family must be distraught, he always seems like a thoroughly decent man. When he does tv shows he is never judgmental or condescending towards those who aren’t making sensible decisions, aren’t as well educated as himself etc. He just informs and guides gently. Hopefully this will be resolved either way quickly. We had an incident in my family where someone went missing (they were found after about a week…it was intentional due to mental health issues)…from my experience the distress to family from the unknown is actually worse than a straightforward bereavement, I think it’s because you don’t know if the person could be still alive and suffering and you also don’t know what point you should give up hope and that feel guilt when doing so. If he stays missing long term his wife and children will then have that awful feeling of returning home without him, but not having closure.
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Also, to add. One positive thing.
The amount of media coverage due to his celebrity will mean that the Greek authorities know they are being watched and judged by a wide audience. It should make no difference to search operation decisions and resources deployed but realistically it does. He will be getting the best Greece can offer with support from the mainland being provided as well.
Quite possibly more search and police resources, and more time taken before calling off the search…a high-profile unresolved mystery such as this could affect tourism and the reputation of the island in particular and Greece as a holiday destination. The media coverage, even if it’s generating wild conspiracies online and lots of potentially insensitive chat for the family from bystanders (such as us), actually helps in this case. This is not at all like Nicola Bulley…the police in that case were dealing with a wider population getting involved in the case with fake tip offs or sightings etc which massively interfered with their ability to run the investigation. With this case, anyone who wasn’t physically part of the small island population on that first day/night should easily be dismissed as unreliable. The whole island is actually small enough that with a police team from the mainland they could try door to door enquires for the whole place if they thought that would yield anything. They should have done that already along his expected route.
I think authorities were assuming he hadn’t reached Pedi because there’s no obvious way he could have had an accident from that point onwards (it’s one road so almost impossible to get lost, not cliff side and lined with houses, low traffic and low crime…an incredibly safe walk). They were assuming he must have fallen from the coastal path.
If he had fallen, he would also have been unlikely to have ended up in the sea, the rock face isn’t that steep, it would catch his fall and he’d get stuck on the rocks. They probably even with heat seeking equipment would find it hard to trace him if he’s in a well hidden spot as the ground would be so hot it would emulate body temperature. He may also have crawled intentionally into a crevice in the rocks to escape searing heat if injured.
Now that he’s confirmed as making it to Pedi…and the story from 2019 about an episode of short term memory loss…I think he may have had a similar episode and become confused. Then for whatever reason he’s headed off onto some side path or across rocky ground, become disorientated or trapped somewhere and collapsed from heat exhaustion. Either that or he decided to get into the sea and swim wherever he thought was the right direction.
The massive problem for the search team, based on my theory, is that he may not have been behaving logically. Meaning he could have decided to just scale a mountain in the wrong direction or swam as far as he could get away from shore. That’s probably why they are widening their search effort…because he’s not going to have had the obvious ‘accident and fallen on the coast path’ accident which would have been the first (most obvious) assumption. There is also the small chance that he’s got into a car (and for some reason the driver hasn’t come forward) and taken a lift somewhere and then got out and got lost, the south of the island is a couple of roads and mostly just rocks. He’s unlikely to have used any form or public transport as that would have been checked quickly.
They might have done this already…but they really need to ask the person who was wearing similar clothes in the area on that day to come forward and confirm all their whereabouts and timings and who they spoke to etc. That would help with the issue of working out which witness sightings are likely most reliable. It doesn't appear obvious as of yet that any of these small number of witness sightings are just time-wasters. With such a small population the people who make things up ‘to be involved’ in the police drama of it all gets much less
I don’t think suicide or other intentional disappearance at all. Going to the beach with his wife, who urgently needs to contact them other than their kids…maybe he leaves his phone behind if with her (men don’t always want things in pockets that they can loose easily, especially in the heat wearing loose fitting shorts or a beach). The decision to walk back alone isn’t strange either. The reporting has been muddled and made it sound like he went off on some hike alone…but it’s most likely that he just enjoyed walking more than the others present and enjoyed less time lying around on the beach. It wasn’t considered a dangerous path and should have been a simple walk with no way to get lost. When splitting with the group it would have been logical to have taken his wife’s phone for safety…but men often don’t think like that, he had no reason to think it was unsafe and it was a fairly well used path, plus we now know from the cctv that he navigated the coastal path safely, so in theory if he got into an difficulty after that point he had plenty of places, cafes, shops, houses…that he could have called on for help. There were witnesses on the beach…if there had been a huge row it would have been noticed. He also works with his wife and has a marriage of nearly 40 years…so they don’t seem the likely types to have public rows or sudden relationship dramas, they were also staying with friends…people don’t generally do that if they can’t behave themselves calmlas a couple…they would be in the privacy a hotel.
The theory of the intentionally running off with a mistress also doesn’t make any sense. It’s not easy to get off such a small island unnoticed, he wouldn’t be able to ever go back to the uk, plus by disappearing on holiday he’s made himself front page news, possibly in Greece as well…plus he wouldn’t be able to contact his children again, or work in anything he’s qualified in without any identity documents. If he wanted to end his marriage he would just do it in the uk as quietly as possible to protect his career and relationship with children as much as possible.
But…I wouldn’t rule out the sighting of him ‘with a woman’. If he’s had a memory issue he could be easily led by someone he got talking to. Again, if this is real sighting or just someone in similar clothes, any woman who was with a man dressed similar should come forward to help rule in or out that sighting. With his general personality I think he is the type that would stop and chat to random people if he’s in no rush on holiday, especially if they recognised him he would want to be polite and maintain his image. So with a memory loss incident he would be also be easy prey to someone wanting to do him intentional harm, but in that location it seems unlikely to have been that type of incident.
The area has a small population, even with low cctv coverage, if enough people co-operate they should be able to work through witness statements properly.
Sadly, I think the chances of him being alive after this amount of time are now getting very slim, dehydration alone would be deadly without other injuries if he did just walk off in an illogical direction. My prediction is that they will find his body within the next few days, but police won’t have an explanation of how he ended up in that location as he will be somewhere illogical. I think they’ll find him on land not in the water.
His family must be distraught, he always seems like a thoroughly decent man. When he does tv shows he is never judgmental or condescending towards those who aren’t making sensible decisions, aren’t as well educated as himself etc. He just informs and guides gently. Hopefully this will be resolved either way quickly. We had an incident in my family where someone went missing (they were found after about a week…it was intentional due to mental health issues)…from my experience the distress to family from the unknown is actually worse than a straightforward bereavement, I think it’s because you don’t know if the person could be still alive and suffering and you also don’t know what point you should give up hope and that feel guilt when doing so. If he stays missing long term his wife and children will then have that awful feeling of returning home without him, but not having closure.
---
Also, to add. One positive thing.
The amount of media coverage due to his celebrity will mean that the Greek authorities know they are being watched and judged by a wide audience. It should make no difference to search operation decisions and resources deployed but realistically it does. He will be getting the best Greece can offer with support from the mainland being provided as well.
Quite possibly more search and police resources, and more time taken before calling off the search…a high-profile unresolved mystery such as this could affect tourism and the reputation of the island in particular and Greece as a holiday destination. The media coverage, even if it’s generating wild conspiracies online and lots of potentially insensitive chat for the family from bystanders (such as us), actually helps in this case. This is not at all like Nicola Bulley…the police in that case were dealing with a wider population getting involved in the case with fake tip offs or sightings etc which massively interfered with their ability to run the investigation. With this case, anyone who wasn’t physically part of the small island population on that first day/night should easily be dismissed as unreliable. The whole island is actually small enough that with a police team from the mainland they could try door to door enquires for the whole place if they thought that would yield anything. They should have done that already along his expected route.
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