(Athens) Doctor Michael Mosley, a familiar face to British television viewers, was found dead on the Greek island of Symi in the Aegean Sea where he had disappeared on Thursday, local police and his relatives said on Sunday.

“People on a boat saw a body near a rocky coast,” Petros Vassilakis, the police chief of the South Aegean region, told AFP, before indicating that he Michael Mosley was indeed acting.

“I am devastated to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband,” his wife Clare Bailey Mosley later confirmed, saying she was “so lucky to have been able to share this life” with him. .

“We are so grateful to the extraordinary people who worked tirelessly to try to find him, […] from dawn to dusk, without even being asked,” she added.

A crew from Greek public broadcaster ERT was filming the area where the 67-year-old man, known for his innovative advice on diet, disappeared when they spotted a body.

“Looking at the equipment he had taken, (the cameraman) saw that something strange was near the fence, 50 m from the sea,” an ERT journalist said on air.

“We discovered […] that it was indeed this man […] He was in a lying position” on his back, said this journalist, Aristides Miaoulis.

“This is the body of the journalist we have been looking for for several days,” the mayor of Symi, Lefteris Papakalodoukas, who was with the television team, also told this channel.

Initially, forensic pathologist Despina Nathena ruled out foul play, ERT reported.

“However, the sepsis is very advanced and it cannot determine the exact cause of death, nor whether he fell from the rocks,” according to Ert.

The Greek authorities announced on Friday that they were intensifying their search, for the third day in a row, in an attempt to find the 67-year-old doctor and journalist, known for his regular appearances on the BBC’s The One Show and This Morning on ITV.

Michael Mosley was also a documentary filmmaker and author of numerous books on the Mediterranean diet and intermittent fasting.

The BBC’s director of content, Charlotte Moore, paid tribute to a “brilliant creator and broadcaster of science programmes, capable of simplifying the most complex subjects”, whose “entertaining and accessible approach was appreciated by audiences across the whole world “.

Saleyha Ahsan, Michael Mosley’s co-presenter on the BBC show Trust Me, I’m A Doctor, said her colleague had a “passion for explaining science to a wider audience”.

“Make science accessible to everyone, not just to a niche scientist, but to everyone,” the doctor told BBC News.

Michael Mosley’s wife notified police of his disappearance Wednesday evening after he went for a walk alone and did not return.

On Thursday morning, local police officially announced his disappearance and firefighters sent a helicopter to help with the search. His children also went to the scene to participate in the search.

The area where the presenter disappeared is considered “difficult, because it is quite rocky,” the mayor of Symi stressed on Thursday, according to the Greek daily Kathimerini.

The nearby island of Rhodes, opposite the Turkish coast, is also plagued by extreme heat, like many Greek regions.