Body believed to be Michael Mosley, missing British doctor and TV presenter, found on Greek island

A body believed to be that of missing British doctor and TV presenter Michael Mosley 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 believed to be seen Wednesday before disappearing, according to various officials including a police spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. Formal identification was still pending. But a police source told the BBC, a CBS News partner, that the person had been dead “for a number of days.”

Mosley went missing Wednesday afternoon on the Greek island of Symi after going for a walk. His disappearance last week prompted a major search operation involving the coast guard, police and fire officials, who used drones, a police dog and a helicopter as they worked through several days of high temperatures to locate him.

Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island’s mayor, told The Associated Press he was on the boat with members of the media when they saw a body some 20 meters above the Agia Marina beach a little after 10 a.m.

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

The mayor said 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, said Antonis Mystiloglou, a cameraman with state TV ERT, who was also on the boat.

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

“We need to get a first insight into the causes of death and whether [it] preceded the person’s fall to the ground,” Dimoglidou told the BBC.

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

Outside of the U.K., Mosley is also known for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet,” which he co-authored 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 on the other five.

He subsequently introduced a rapid weight loss program and has made a number of films about diet and exercise.

Mosley has often pushed his body to extreme lengths to see the effects of his diets and also lived with tapeworms in his 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 doctor, author and health columnist.