A BRIT tourist who was found dead after he mysteriously disappeared on a Greek island hike has been pictured for the first time.
Jay Arnold, 60, went missing on Karpathos, , and his family have flown to Rhodes as repatriation efforts get underway.
Karpathos island in Greece where Jay Arnold went missing
Jay, 60, was found dead after vanishing on a Greek island hike
The distraught son, former wife, and brother-in-law of Jay now face an agonising wait before Greek authorities allow his remains to be returned home, it can be revealed.
A post-mortem is due to be conducted by a coroner on Rhodes to determine the exact cause of death.
Jay along one of Karpathos’s rugged trails.
He was dressed in shorts and a bermuda shirt as he started the popular hike.
A local eyewitness described how the Brit, who was travelling solo, had stopped and asked for directions to reach Vroukounda via the Lahamitis path.
Days later, when the owner of the room Jay was went to clean after his booking expired, she found the space empty and reported him missing.
A silver alert was issued, sparking a massive search and rescue operation at the request of his family.
Authorities mobilised immediately, deploying firefighters, , coast guard units, , sniffer and volunteers to comb both land and coastline.
Teams even arrived from nearby Rhodes to help — but no trace was found until hunters happened across the body this weekend.
Tragically, Arnold’s body was found in a remote area in the north of Karpathos on Saturday with police calling the discovery “totally unexpected”.
One cop said: “After so long we had come to the conclusion that he must have slipped and fallen into the sea.
“This was totally unexpected.
“There wasn’t a stone we had left unturned, or that was what we had thought.”
The find brings finally brings to an end the excruciating wait for answers that the tourist ‘s devastated family have looked for all this time.
“It is tragic for everyone involved and them in particular,” the cop added.
Arnold is not the only Brit to have died on holiday in this .
The tragedy adds to a worrying spate of British holidaymaker deaths in the popular holiday nation.
Earlier this month, a 73-year-old Brit was found unresponsive on a sun lounger in Agia Paraskevi, Skiathos.
Fellow tourists and a lifeguard tried desperately to revive him before a local doctor worked on him for 40 minutes — but he could not be saved.
Days before, a 68-year-old British man
Witnesses said he appeared to lose consciousness in the water; coastguard crews rushed him ashore, but doctors at the Archangelos Health Centre pronounced him dead.
was pulled from the sea at Prasonisi, Rhodes earlier this month.
The tourist was unresponsive and did not have a pulse when he was brought to shore, according to officials.
He was rushed to Gennadi Centre, but was tragically pronounced dead at the hospital.
Hunters discovered the 55-year-old’s body in a remote area of Karpathos 
