Body of Brit woman who vanished in Greece found after month-long search, heartbroken husband confirms
The heartbroken husband of a British woman who vanished while he slept on a sun lounger in Greece has confirmed police have found his wife’s body.
Listen to this article
Michele Ann Joy Bourda, 59, had been swimming at Ofrynio beach in the city of Kavala at when she disappeared.
In the days that followed, local police conducted a major search for her.
Mr Bourda had been asleep on a sunbed while she was swimming, but awoke to find she had vanished.
Now, Mr Bourda has confirmed police have located the body of his beloved wife, a month after she went missing.
Read more: Israel's security cabinet approves plan to take full control of Gaza City
The body is yet to be formally identified, but Mr Bourda claims he is ‘99 per cent sure’ it belongs to his wife.
He told the MailOnline: “They have found her body. Sadly I was expecting this.
“The problem is the harbour police did not start their search until late at night and I don’t know what effect that had.
“They said they couldn’t find her, they claimed she had disappeared with an unknown man, but this was rubbish.
“I think the harbour police really didn’t do anything and next time something happens like this tehy should think about it. It shouldn’t take them three hours to write up a missing person’s report before starting the search.
“They said there were no signs she had drowned, that there was no body, that she was following someone else. But I knew this was not the case. She would not have gone off without her money, her glasses or her medication.”
Hitting out at the police, Mr Bourda added: “I had only been to the prosecution centre yesterday to complain about how the police and harbour police have handled this. It will be easy to see when I called the telephone line and how long they didn’t do anything for.
“She had psychological issues. I told them that from the start and they weren’t able to find her.
“It’s impossible. Nobody did anything to help. Even the chap who saw her in the sea, he lost sight of her.”
Speaking last month, Mr Bourda confirmed that his wife “suffered intermittently from episodes of depression and anxiety for a number of years.”
The pair have been married for 36 years after meeting at university in Germany.
Looking back on the night before his wife vanished, he said: ”The whole night before she had been holding my hand and you would never think anything was wrong or something like this would ever happen.
“We were talking the other day and she was saying how happy our 40 years together and I said yes, we will hopefully have another 40 years in front of us.”