The husband of Michel Ann Joy Bourda, 59, is appealing to the Greek authorities to continue the search for his missing British wife, who disappeared on Friday, August 1, from Ofriniou Beach in Kavala, via Protothema.gr.

He also urged anyone who might have seen her to come forward with information that could help locate his beloved wife. “If someone finds her, we’ll give them money,” Mr. Bourda emphasized.

The couple, who live permanently in the UK, had only been in Greece for three days on vacation, specifically at Ofriniou Beach in Kavala.

“We were sitting on the beach. My wife was fine and even suggested we have a crepe and then rest, which we did. Unfortunately, I fell asleep for a short while, and when I woke up, she wasn’t next to me,” Mr. Bourda recounted. He immediately began searching for her and sought help from the staff of the establishment where they had been sitting.

However, he noted that “the police were very slow to arrive,” which he says caused valuable time to be lost. He added that the coast guard also delayed starting their search, and by the time they began, night had fallen. “I reported at around 3 p.m. that I had lost my wife, and the police arrived two hours later, around 5, and then the coast guard came. When the patrol car and officers arrived, they were just walking up and down,” he said, expressing extreme disappointment in the authorities. “I searched alone for three days along a huge beach, covering 10 kilometers at a time, and even climbed a mountain in case she had gone there.”

“I Have No Hope She’s Alive”

Remaining in the Kavala area to continue the search, Mr. Bourda believes his wife may no longer be alive. “I have no hope that she’s alive,” he said, noting that she had neither money nor her medication, which is essential for her health. She suffers from a muscle disease, and missing her medication can cause serious problems in her muscles and other organs. He added that if she drowned, “her body needs to be found.”

Describing his wife, Mr. Bourda said she was a strong swimmer and would enter the sea wearing red sunglasses (which were prescription) and a baseball-style cap. “It was the third day of our vacation in Greece, and because it rained on the first day, we hadn’t gone to the beach. It was only the second time we went swimming,” he said, adding that they had previously vacationed in Germany.

The 59-year-old, who had worked in the UK as an IT specialist for a large company, had stopped working in the last six to seven years and was due to receive her pension in a few months. Her husband said she had gone through a period of psychological issues when she stopped working, “but she had completely overcome them.”

Regarding the possibility that she disappeared intentionally while he was asleep, Mr. Bourda said a police officer suggested it, but he completely rejected the idea, telling Protothema.gr that his wife “was financially independent and could have simply divorced me. She would never have needed to do something like this. Moreover, we were very happy together; we had no problems.”