American found dead on Greek island as search continues for others
An American tourist was found dead on the small Greek island of Mathraki on Sunday.
It’s just the latest case of several tourists who have died or gone missing in Greece this summer.
Another tourist found the American man close to the old port of Mathraki, which is near Corfu, according to AFP who pointed to local media reports.
The so-far unidentified American was reported missing on Thursday and was last seen alive at a tavern on Tuesday with two female tourists who later left the island.
The tourist was on Mathraki for a holiday and to stay with a Greek-American friend. The island has a population of only about 100 people. It’s heavily wooded and covers about 1.2 square miles, located west of the larger island of Corfu.
The American tourist was found on a beach close to the old port of Mathraki Island, an official told ABC News.
The friend called the police after he came back home on Thursday finding the front door open, the lights and the airconditioning on, but without any trace of the American tourist or his ID or travel documents.
Law enforcement was called in from Corfu as Mathraki has no coast guard or police station.
A coroner was traveling to Mathraki on Sunday to begin a preliminary investigation. Officials said the body is set to be taken to Corfu for an autopsy, according to ABC News.
The unidentified tourist’s death is the third on Greek islands in the last few weeks. British TV personality Michael Mosely was found dead last Sunday on Symi. A coroner found that he had died the previous Wednesday after going for a hike in rocky terrain.
A Dutch tourist was found dead early on Saturday on Samos. The 74-year-old man was located by Fire Service drone as he lay facedown in a ravine around 330 yards from where he was last seen on Sunday as he struggled to walk in the heat.
Samos and Symi are both located close to the Turkish coast.
The authorities were still searching for three people on Sunday reported missing on several Greek islands, including one American – retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy Albert Calibet, 59, from Hermosa Beach, California, who was reported missing after he didn’t return from a hike on the island of Amorgos.
“We’re sick to our stomachs, knowing he’s out there somewhere,” his girlfriend Debbie Leshane told KABC.
She added that Calibet called her just before he left to go on the hike, adding that they spoke for around six minutes and that at about 9.20am local time on Tuesday, he sent an image from the trailhead sign. That was the last time she heard from him.
Two French tourists were reported missing on the island of Sikinos in the Aegean Sea on Friday. The island has less than 400 permanent residents, CBS News noted.
The tourists, two women aged 73 and 64, had left their hotels to meet up.