The British woman who vanished from a Greek sunbed six days ago while her husband slept was seen walking away from the scene, as it emerges she also disappeared in London in 2020, according to Greek media.
Michele Ann Joy Bourda, 59, had been swimming at Ofrynio beach in the city of Kavala at around noon on Friday before she suddenly went missing, beginning an investigation by land and sea into her whereabouts.
An image shared by Greek outlet ANT1 reportedly shows the last sighting of Mrs Bourda, enjoying a snack with her Greek husband, Christos, at a cafe near the beach three hours before she vanished.
The couple had gone to the beach early in the morning and spent several hours there before Mrs Bourda’s husband fell asleep.
When he woke up, his wife had vanished from the sunlounger, but her belongings remained.
A sports instructor claimed he saw a woman who resembled Mrs Bourda swimming in deep waters and said that he urged her to not go any further, LBC reports.
But sources are now saying they saw her walking away from the scene in northern Greece, according to Ilia Live.
This is not the first time Mrs Bourda has gone missing, the report claimed.
In London 2020 following a dismissal from work, the woman vanished before she was later found by the police.
She has reportedly been suffering with health problems in recent times, spurring her husband’s anxiety about her current whereabouts.
In the photograph from the beach cafe, Mrs Bourda is pictured wearing a dark swimming costume and sunglasses, and appears calm as she chats with her husband, who is shown in the photo wearing a white cap.
When he woke from his slumber on the beach to find that Mrs Bourda was not by his side, he asked the owners of a nearby shop if they had seen his wife, to who he reportedly revealed that she ‘was not very well’.
Speaking to Greek outlet Protothema, one of the shop owners said: ‘The couple were together and at some point the husband fell asleep and it seems that the wife went in to swim.
‘When the husband woke up and didn’t see her next to him, he came to the store and asked us if we had seen his wife, who had disappeared.
‘He also told us that his wife was not very well, and that she had problems.’
The shop keeper went on to say that Mrs Bourda’s husband ‘was a bit stressed’ and told them that ‘his wife had done this before, that is, she had disappeared’.
‘This is what he told us, that she had gotten lost again and that she wasn’t very well, the woman had problems.’
Police have been searching on land for the tourist, while Greece’s Hellenic Coast Guard have been scouring the sea, but the central port authority in Kavala said on Monday night it had paused its targeted search and rescue efforts.
A Silver Alert was issued after the police failed to immediately locate the tourist and authorities have warned that she may be in danger.
Silver Alerts are usually used to notify citizens about the disappearance of elderly people, especially those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
‘Her life is in danger. If you know anything, contact the Silver Alert service, 24 hours a day, at the National SOS Line 1065,’ the alert by the Greek missing persons charity, Lifeline Hellas, said.
While Greek media are still referring to the woman as a tourist, there is some speculation that the couple were living locally, in a village in Serres.
Mrs Bourda, described as timid by her neighbours in Glasgow, was said to very adventurous and active.
One said: ‘She has always dressed in walking gear with a fleece and boots or a cagoule. She is really into the outdoors.’
Neighbours would regularly see her and her husband Christos out walking with backpacks on as they loaded the car for another day trip in the wild.
One of her neighbours said: ‘They’ve got bikes, and are quite active. They like to go walking, they like to go wild swimming.
‘They would go, and they would often be away for the whole day in the summer, and then if we saw them coming in and out and they would say, “oh, we’ve been somewhere up north and we were swimming”. And I would see her sometimes sit and reading in the garden.’
Those who lived nearby admitted they were shocked upon hearing that Mrs Bourda had been reported missing while holidaying in Greece.
Another added: ‘The couple are very private and keep themselves to themselves. She is very quiet and timid and he is a bit more commanding. They moved to Glasgow about six years ago because their son is studying here.’
‘They are retired and tend to go everywhere together even though they have two cars. They are quite guarded and private but I’m very shocked that she has gone missing.’
A map shows how the 10.5-mile-long Greek beach where Mrs Bourda vanished after lounging on a sunbed is surrounded by expansive fields, residential houses and a huge fishing pond.
She was last seen wearing a rhinestone-embellished two-piece beaded swimsuit, yellow beach shoes and a pair of red horn-rimmed sunglasses.
She is described as being 5ft 6in, of a slim build with blue eyes and shoulder-length hair.
The Daily Mail contacted the FCDO for comment on whether the UK Government was assisting in the search for Ms Bourda.
It comes after a 60-year-old British tourist went missing in June while on holiday in Greece.
His hired car was found abandoned on the island of Karpathos in 38C heat and he was last seen by the owner of his rented accommodation on June 27.
Meanwhile, fears are growing for a British woman who disappeared from a Spanish tourist hotspot last week.
Jennifer Frances Lacey, 41, vanished from the municipality of Vera on Monday, July 28.
Her disappearance was reported by the SOS Missing Persons Association on Thursday and she is described as measuring 5ft 2in, having curly brown hair, blue eyes and wearing prescription glasses.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘We are supporting the family of a British woman who was reported missing in Spain.’
At least ten foreign tourists were found dead or disappeared last year in Greece while going for a hike, often in high temperatures, the New York Times reported.
It also comes days after the search for an elderly British man who went missing on a trip to ancient Turkish tombs ended in tragedy.
Following a three-day search in and around the ancient tombs of Kaunos in Turkey for the 79-year-old, investigators found a body.
The man was reported missing by his daughter, who he travelled with to Çandır, a village in Muğla’s Köyceğiz district in southwestern Turkey, for a holiday together on July 26.
At 10.30am that day, her father began a trip by rowboat to the nearby rock-cut temple tombs of Kaunos, also known as the Lycian rock tombs, but she lost contact with him and has not heard from his since.
Following his daughter’s report, Turkish authorities launched a search for the man with a 19-person team, consisting of the Köyceğiz Gendarmerie District Command, Muğla AFAD and an NGO.
An investigation is now underway to understand exactly how the man went missing.
