A tragic end for British scientist Natalie Christopher: her body was found crushed by a big rock, 70 hours after she went missing on the island of Ikaria on Monday morning. Thursday noon, coroner Nikos Karakoukis who inspected the spot for three hours confirmed that Christopher’s death was instant and caused by a fall.
“All indications point out to death caused by a fall from a height.There are no indications that the body was dragged while she was still alive,”Karakoukis told media after a thorough external autopsy.
“After the site inspection, the whole situation is in line with a fall from a height. There are no satellite spots there is a primary spot beneath the victim’s head. And the other data we have collected agree that instant death was caused by a fall from a high altitude. ”
Natalie Christopher’s body had to remain on the sport from 5 pm Wednesday until Thursday noon waiting for coroner to arrive from Athens on a helicopter.
The spot where Christopher’s body was found via local media ikariaki
Karakoukis added that the corpse will be transferred to Athens on Friday for an autopsy and laboratory tests.
Rescuers suggested that sports-fan Natalie was trying to climb either up or down, the rock detached and drifted her down to her death.
Natalie Christopher went missing on Monday morning when she left the hotel to go for jogging.
Her partner said he woke up in the morning and when he saw she wasn’t there he called her mobile.
Rescuers told media that she had told him she was about to climb a rock when he called her.
After she failed to show up, her partner called her phone again but there was no response. He then called the police to report she had gone missing at around 12.40pm.
A big search operation was immediately launched with the participation of police, fire service and volunteers.
The case had alerted authorities given the tragic death of another jogger, US biologist Suzanne Eaton, who was murdered in a heinous crime beginning of July on the island of Crete.
Wednesday afternoon, Greek police confirmed that the Christopher’s was found under a rock in a 3-meter deep ravine.
The body of the 35-year-old astrophysicist was found approximately 1 km away from the hotel where Christopher and her 38-year-old Cypriot partner were staying in Kerame area of Agios Kyrikas.
Search teams had passed already three times by the spot in the difficult to access area until they found the body, rescuers told media.
Journalist Sotiris Politis from Ikaria told Open TV, that the area where Christopher was found was not a climbing route. The young woman had reached the area on foot. “At this area, rocks are loose and there is no way that they could withstand the weight of a body,” Politis said.
According to ANT1 TV, police continues the investigation in the area as well as in the hotel and digs deeper in the relationship of the couple, even though police tends to the same result as the coroner.
Postmortem laboratory test are supposed to show whether she had consumed alcohol or medication, ANT TV reported further.
Christopher and her partner flew to Ikaria on August 3 and were planning to return to Cyprus on Monday evening, August 5.
