DNA test results have shown that the body of a 65-year-old Frenchman, who had been missing since last April along with his wife, DNA test results have confirmed that the body of a man that washed ashore on July 22 on Analipsi Beach in the municipality of Messini is his.
The couple went missing on Holy Tuesday, April 19, when they had gone canoeing in the cove of Kapsali on Kythira. A week later, a relative contacted the local port authorities and the Kythira police department because they had not heard from them. The Coast Guard launched a search, but the couple was not found; it appears their canoe had been swept out to sea by the currents.
We would like to remind you that the body of the missing Frenchman, which washed ashore at Analipsi in an advanced state of decomposition, was found by swimmers last July, who then notified the authorities. Officials from the Kalamata Central Port Authority, who conducted the investigation to identify the unidentified man, examined the personal belongings found on the body and, while searching for information on missing persons cases missing persons, they were led to the possibility that he was the 65-year-old Frenchman. Consequently, they initiated the standard procedure for collecting DNA and contacted the French authorities to obtain a sample from a relative of the missing person to compare with that of the unidentified man. Yesterday, Monday, when the results of the DNA tests were sent from the Police Forensic Laboratories, the Port Authority officials’ assessments were confirmed, and a relative of the 65-year-old is now expected to arrive from France to claim the remains from Kalamata Hospital.
