Gareth David Huntley’s mother Janet Southwell arrived at the Forensics Department of the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital (HTAA) at 11am today to identify the body of a man found in Kampung Juara, Pulau Tioman at midday yesterday.

Southwell arrived from Pulau Tioman in a helicopter accompanied by Karen Song, the vice-consul at the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, and Huntley’s girlfriend, Kit Natariga Panyawatcharakun.

The body had been flown from Pulau Tioman to HTAA at around 1am by helicopter.  

A post-mortem is being carried out to determine if the body is indeed that of Huntley who went missing after going on a trek in Pulau Tioman eight days ago.

The body was found by a riverbank, just about 500 metres from the chalet where Huntley was staying at the Kampung Juara Turtle Conservation Centre in Pulau Tioman.

Huntley, who was a volunteer at the centre, was reported missing on May 27 while allegedly making a trek to the Lubuk Teja waterfalls on the island alone.

A massive search operation involving 157 policemen, civil defence personnel and from other agencies was mounted to find him.

- Bernama