The 34-year-old, named locally as astrophysicist Dr Natalie Christopher, went missing hours before she and her Cypriot partner were due to fly back to their home in Nicosia.

The couple had been holidaying in Ikaria’s popular Kerame area since the beginning of the month.

Dr Christopher’s 38-year-old partner reported her missing around noon on Monday when she failed to return from a run.

He said he woke up in the morning to find she wasn’t there so called her mobile, and she told him she was running in the Ayios Kirikos area.

However, after she failed to show up, he then called her phone again only to find there was no response, reports the Cyprus Mail.

He then called the police to report she had gone missing at around 12.40pm.

Policemen, firefighters, coast guard officers, volunteers and a helicopter are now taking part in the search operation, with units combing the mountainous area around Kerame.

Reports said the missing woman’s phone was still on, prompting her worried sister to urge people not to call her to save the battery.

One of her final posts on Facebook speaks of the luxurious island where she’d been staying, showing the crystal clear waters surrounded by rocky clifftops.

“Beautiful spot for swimming … had so much fun here today,” she wrote on the social media platform the night before her disappearance.

“Realised later there are bolted routes here too, would love to come back again to climb.”

Jena Christopher said on Facebook: “If you have her phone number please DO NOT call her as this will drain the battery and the police are trying to use her phone to find her location.”

Reports said the radio signal emitted by the phone was picked up by a cell tower located on an island opposite Ikaria, but authorities believe it was probably due to interference.

Greek media said authorities were contemplating switching off the tower on Fourni island in a bid to get a clearer location of the phone.

The owner of the hotel the couple were staying at said police had sealed off the room and that Dr Christopher’s partner was staying with him at his house.

The unnamed man told Greek media: “He is a very good lad, he’s from Cyprus. He’s lost it, he has panicked, he cannot believe it.”

The hotel owner was also reported by Greek media to have seen blood on the couple’s sheets, describing it as resembling the blood seen in a nose bleed.

Dr Christopher’s disappearance follows another incident last month when American scientist Suzanne Eaton was allegedly raped and murdered in Crete.

A local man has apparently confessed to the crime in which sexual assault appeared to have been the motive.

Dr Eaton was found dead in mid July at the bottom of a cave that was used by the Nazis to store weapons during World War II near Cania.

The 59-year-old mother-of-two was originally from California but lived in Germany with her husband, a British scientist.

She vanished on July 2 at some point in the afternoon and was due to attend a conference but failed to show up.

Her family believe she went out for a run, as the only things missing from her hotel room were her running shoes.

Coroner Antonis Papadomanolakis told Greece’s ANT1 News that “something complicated happened” during Eaton’s death.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

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Source: THE SUN /

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/massive-hunt-for-missing-scientist-who-vanished-after-going-for-a-run-in-greece/news-story/7b7b750d50daacf378f323be6711ad9b