John Lawton update 8 June

Our week began with working closely with the Lawton family trying to establish grid references for all the energy gel sachets the teams in Greece located and trying to ensure that information such as batch numbers and expiry dates had been documented. The sad news is the gel sachets have since been put together in one evidence bag which is now casting a doubt as to if the samples have been cross-contaminated. Furthermore, the turmoil for the Lawton family doesn't end there. John Lawton's son, Steve has returned to Greece in the hope for DNA results only to establish that they haven't moved from the police station.

Following a debrief with the team who undertook a very difficult search in Greece for missing marathon runner and Cheshire resident, John Lawton, it was decided that there were still areas we needed to still address.

Therefore with many hours and days of consideration and weighing up the risks and benefits, we have the provisional date of Friday 22nd June but this is dependent on the availability of flights, accommodation and funding.

Two teams will fly back to Athens and travel to Kardymyli where they will stay and use as a base during the search phase.

These teams face a new challenge of extreme conditions of the heat and will therefore search during the morning then after 3-4pm. The vegetation will of course have grown more than our previous visit and the risks of injuries increase.

We continue to work closely with GAIA Alert and also family and friends of John Lawton to bring the search to a natural conclusion.

Further updates to follow.


Back to news