A BRITISH WOMAN is left speechless after her husband disappeared on holiday in Greece two years ago.
Heide Wolstenhulme doesn’t know what happened to her husband of more than 40 years, David, who disappeared while on vacation on the quiet island of Serifos.
5
5
David, 69, an avid hiker, was wearing a blue scarf, blue shorts, a blue cloud top and a hat when he went missing in June 2021.
Rescue teams are also specially trained dogs and drones they scoured the island at that time – but they did not find any kind of David.
Holding back tears, Heide told The Sun: “It’s been two years since Dave went missing and nobody can find anything.
“I wish he was alive but I don’t think he is because he had nowhere to go.
“He couldn’t go anywhere because there were Covid restrictions and he didn’t have anything, not even his passport.
“You never think that things like this can happen to you. It’s like watching something on TV.
“We can’t believe it especially since he knows how to walk like this, I know that accidents happen or maybe he had a heart attack.”
“I don’t understand where he is going, I feel very sad that he has passed through the ground because there are old mines in the area.
“I’m just wondering if the ground is gone – it’s a bad idea.”
The couple from Skipton, North Yorkshire flew into the sunshine Greece from Manchester on June 11, 2021.
After a short stay in Athens, he visited several islands including Ikaria, Mykonos and Paros before arriving in Serifos to meet friends and celebrate his birthday.
This was the second time the two had visited the island.
On June 25, David left his home in Livadi for a walk which, according to his wife, was unusual.
He had his own equipment, his own driving the permit is “total euros for the day.”
But Heide started to worry when around 5 o’clock in the afternoon he failed to return and did not answer his phone.
“We celebrated a friend’s birthday on Tuesday and had a couple of days at the beach,” she said.
“Dave doesn’t like being on the beach much he likes to walk – some of his friends didn’t want to go with him because it was too hot but that didn’t bother Dave.
“I can’t imagine what happened to him, it’s really unbelievable. It’s no wonder he just disappeared.
“I still want answers, I want to know what happened.”
Emergency services launched a massive search operation, with locals searching the island for David’s whereabouts.
No information has been found so far and David’s bank cards are no longer in use.
During the investigation, David’s phone was about to start traveling, in Agios Panteleimonas, a 20-minute drive from the hotel.
Heide said: “When it happened, everyone came out to watch, all the locals, all night, taxi drivers and restaurant people.
“There’s not much the police on the island, but they continued to search for the whole week and the following days and found nothing.”
In her statement to the police, Heide said: “Right before our holiday, our relationship was as stable, loving and secure as it had ever been.
“I love David very much and I know he loves me too, we have a very good relationship marriage and we were all satisfied with our lives.
It’s been two years since David disappeared and Heide has no answers.
He recounted his struggles over the past two years and criticized the study – saying he had little change over time.
“I had an email from the mayor of the island and he gave me a full report on where he looked and he said the phone was taken from this village Agios Panteleimonas,” he said.
“It is not the area where David is going, so I am not sure how far the sign was from the village.
“They looked at all the ways they realized. In the beginning when I went down office the officer was just writing some notes.
“I think they’re not used to what’s going on, it’s a small place, and maybe they don’t have any crime all the time.”
Speaking to the Greek TV program Fos sto Tounel, he accused the local police authorities of negligence.
The owner of the hotel where Heidi and her husband were staying said that the search was “very difficult”.
Lora Stamataki said: “He loved to climb mountains and that’s what he was going to do that day.
“It started at 8 o’clock to Chora on the island.
“At 8 o’clock in the afternoon, his wife came to the reception, very worried.
“They told him that he would come back at 5pm.
“The police, public safety were informed and together with the fire department of the island, they started an investigation that same evening, which took about a week.
“As far as I know, a day or two after he disappeared, his phone was found for a few minutes, but then it disappeared again.
“At one point, a police team came with dogs to help with the search, but things were very difficult, because it was almost 40 degrees.”
The couple married in 1980, and enjoyed traveling the world with Greece being one of their favorite destinations.
Heide believes that something has happened to her husband and insists that he could not have disappeared voluntarily as the two had tickets for the next day.
He also said that Dave “will not follow the path” and believes that the government will follow the main steps.
David is still counted as a a rare person and he did not say that he was dead.
This meant that apart from her heartbreak, Heide was left to deal with financial problems.
Heide cannot access David’s pension account because there is no death certificate.
He is currently waiting for a the court feel the choice.
“I will only ask the authorities to re-search the place where his phone was last seen,” he said.
“And to make a request to the local people reminding them that they are still somewhere and if someone is walking in the mountains to open their eyes especially if they see a Blue Tilley hat or anything bright blue on the ground.”
David’s sister Carole described his loss as a “mystery” and said: “I wish we had closure.”
5
5