I woke up and she wasn’t there: Husband of missing Brit who vanished from sunbed describes the moment his nightmare began – and how he was LAUGHED AT as he frantically begged for help

The devastated husband of a British woman missing in Greece has told for the first time how he dozed off on a sun lounger and woke up to find she had vanished.

Chris Bourda, 66, has slammed the Greek police for their lack of urgency in searching for his wife Michele, 59, who disappeared from Ofrynio beach in the city of Kavala at around noon on Friday.

Her belongings had remained on the sun lounger, even her towel, but Mrs Bourda was nowhere to be found.

Speaking to the Daily Mail from Greece, where he is still desperately searching for his wife Mr Bourda said: ‘She had seemed quite happy that day. We went for a short swim as it was windy and there were a few waves.

‘She then ordered a few crepes and said we could have a nice sleep after. Unfortunately I fell asleep first and when I woke up she wasn’t there.

‘I quickly ran to the toilet and knocked on the ladies but she wasn’t in there. I then ran to the beach to look again in the water.

‘I asked the people behind us if they had seen her, they said no but then later they sent a photograph to the police which had shown us eating crepes in the background.

‘I then quickly went back to the waiter to say my wife was missing, have you seen her and he started laughing.’

It was only after Mr Bourda explained to the waiter that his wife had ‘psychological problems and needed to call the police’ that the barman realised the gravity of the situation.

He then asked for help from a local shopkeeper who rang the police, but officers did not arrive at the scene until two hours later, forcing Mr Bourda to continue his search alone.

Mr Bourda said that he did not see a single police officer on the beach they day she went missing – a claim that was echoed by a fellow hotel guest.

He said: ‘The police didn’t do anything on the day. One guest who was there that day said she didn’t see any police and I didn’t see any police that day either, not one single policeman at the beach.

‘The only thing I saw was a police car driving up and down the road to the beach. Not getting out of the car, just looking in the direction of the sea.’

Mr Bourda claimed they have not been using dogs or drones and have only been using the search boat at night or in the early morning ‘so as not to disturb or concern the tourists’.

When he visited the hospital in search of his wife, he said doctors told him that ‘a lot of incidents’ do happen on that beach and that it can sometimes be dangerous.

‘I wonder if they have told me if she is alive so other tourists don’t get scared,’ he said.

He added: ‘I have been searching without sleep or anything. Day and night, especially early in the morning. It was hard to see at night though as it was so dark.

‘For days and nights I have gone up down the coast, searched bushes, olive groves, empty houses, building sites, later I went to the hills, nothing.

‘I asked the police if they think that she is alive, why don’t they use dogs, drones, helicopters and they replied where shall we search? It’s a vast area?

‘I don’t think my wife would have gone to somebody in the car or anything. I really don’t. I have tried everywhere but one person alone is very difficult to find something.’

Pharmacist Mr Bourda said that his wife, who worked at BT before working at a local council, had suffered intermittently from episodes of depression and anxiety for a number of years.

She had disappeared on one occasion before when they lived in London after suffering from a bout of depression after being made redundant but fortunately the police acted quickly and fortunately the mother-of-one was found that night.

Mrs Bourda became ill again in February, however, was in the process of recovering and had been in high spirits.

The couple had gone to Greece after a two-week break visiting Mr Bourda’s family in Germany, to get away from the grey weather in Glasgow, where they now live in trade for some Mediterranean sunshine.

They had planned to stay at the beach resort for six weeks to make the most of the summer.

The Bourdas, who had been married for 36 years after meeting at university in Germany, had enjoyed their first few days wandering around Kavala.

Mr Bourda said: ‘The whole night before she had been holding my hand and you would never think anything was wrong or something like this would ever happen.

‘We were talking the other day and she was saying how happy our 40 years together and I said yes, we will hopefully have another 40 years in front of us.’

The desperate husband was forced to make a complaint to the British Embassy in Athens yesterday after believing the police force in Kavala were not doing enough to help his vulnerable wife.

He said that the Foreign Office told him a dedicated team of volunteers, trained to help find missing people, would be arriving soon to assist.

Feeling let down by the force, as well as other tourists who had been on the beach at the time and claimed they had seen nothing.

He said he fears for other tourists who visit the area and could end up in a similar situation.

Mr Bourda added: ‘I want to complain as they have around 40 million tourists visiting here each year but they don’t have any infrastructure here to help if things go wrong.

‘These are things we would not usually think about when we are safe until something happens and you realise you are not safe.

‘The police are not bothered, they sit in their office in the shade or I’ve seen others just standing in the shade under some trees. That’s how they work.

‘When I visited the station there were just five of them sitting there playing on their phones.

‘They told me we have our men and they are looking for her and I just thought wow, all they are doing is that car going up and down.

‘If they are alive, as they say, she is very vulnerable. She has no shoes, clothes, money, glasses or medication. She must be hiding somewhere.

‘Tomorrow it will be a whole week since she went missing and I think surely someone will have helped her with food or water.’

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.

He reported this as a witness statement to the police, but Mr Bourda was informed this morning that he had withdrawn his statement.

‘Apparently no one has seen her, no guests and one of the witnesses withdrew his statement,’ Mr Bourda added.

‘There was a witness, a sports instructor, who told the police that he told her not to swim far out but when I asked the police again about this today he has apparently withdrawn his statement.

‘He said that she apparently turned back again but he didn’t see her as he was busy.

‘But even if he was shouting at her ‘where are you going, come back’ there were other people on the beach and I cannot understand how nobody, not one person, would see her or hear her.

‘Surely someone would notice if she went out and didn’t come back?’

The last known photograph of Mrs Bourda shows her eating crepes with her husband at the beach cafe.

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’.

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.

Mrs Bourda, described as timid by her neighbours in Glasgow, was said to be very adventurous and active.

She would often be seen out with Mr Bourda walking with backpacks on as they went for hikes.

One neighbour said: ‘She has always dressed in walking gear with a fleece and boots or a cagoule. She is really into the outdoors.’

Another added: ‘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.’

Many have been shocked to hear the news about Mrs Bourda going missing.

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 Mrs 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.