Frantic search for missing Scots holidaymaker who vanished hours after arriving in Algarve party hotspot
FEARS are growing for a missing Scots holidaymaker who vanished during a night out with friends hours after flying to the Algarve on Tuesday.
Greg Monks' worried sister Jillian sounded the alert today, saying the Glasgow man had last been seen in the Portuguese party resort of Albufeira during a first night out.
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And she described his disappearance as 'completely out of character.'
She wrote on an Albufeira expat site: 'My brother has not been since Tuesday evening. If you are currently there and have any information place contact me with any info.'
Alison Meechan Fraser, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, subsequently confirmed the 38-year-old had been reported missing and police were looking for him.
She said: 'He was with a group of friends. All the other boys are at the accommodation.
'They all arrived Tuesday, went on a night out and none of them have seen him since late Tuesday/early Wednesday.
'It's out of character, he's 38 and named Greg.'
Jillian also confirmed her brother's disappearance had been reported to the British Embassy as well as police and his hotel.
She said: 'Please any info. We are desperate. Not like him to do this.'
Portuguese police could not be reached for an immediate contact this afternoon.
Other British holidaymakers reacted to Jillian's SOS by promising their support.
Last month Edinburgh University history student Gregor Thomson vanished briefly less than a full day after arriving in Madrid with rugby club teammates for a weekend trip abroad.
The 21-year-old's dad Murray touched down in the Spanish capital to learn his son had reappeared after becoming separated from friends during a night out.
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Daily Mail
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They had only recently rekindled a long-distance relationship. Messages sent by Pheobe in the lead-up to her disappearance revealed she was looking forward to being reunited with her high school sweetheart. 'I've been better but I focus on the good s***,' Pheobe said in response to a friend checking in on her. 'I take of (sic) to WA in three days! Get out of this s*** home for a bit so that will be good, just packing atm. Asked how long she was going for, Pheobe replied: 'Ten days beautiful x'. On May 16, the day after Pheobe was last seen, the teenager shared two haunting quotes to his social media account as he struggled with his guilt over her no-show. 'Maybe I deserve all the pain I am feeling right now, I mean it is my fault, I should have done better,' he posted the day after his girlfriend disappeared. 'Me staring at her dry texts wondering if I did something wrong and not asking cuz I don't wanna be annoying.' 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Friday May 16 When she failed to appear in Perth, the alert was raised and on Friday, Pheobe was declared a missing person. Mother Kylie Johnson made her first public appeal for help in the search and work began on sending out hundreds of flyers around town. Her worried mum insisted that the teen's disappearance was out of character. Bromley and Wood told police they dropped her off with her luggage at the airport. Pheobe was described as carrying luggage and wearing a green tank top and grey tracksuit pants. Saturday May 17 Housemate James Wood told a friend he had been printing flyers and admitted 'cops basically asked me if I did her in or hurt her at I was one of the last people to see her alive.' Wood is divorced and only moved to Gin Gin from Emerald, 500km west in Queensland's Central Highlands, around six months ago after the end of his marriage. Bromley is a mother of two and Gin Gin local with family believed to be in the Canberra area. The couple are said to have moved in together earlier this year. Police questioned both over Pheobe and released them without any charges in connection with her disappearance. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Wood or Bromley were involved in Pheobe's disappearance. Wood also took to social media offering his 5m tinnie fishing boat as a reward for any information about Pheobe's whereabouts. Monday May 20 Police searched Airport Drive but couldn't find any of Pheobe's belongings. They also failed to locate any CCTV of Pheobe at Bundaberg Airport. A nearby resident supplied CCTV footage of the Hyundai allegedly on Samuels Rd, just west of the airport, around 10.30am, two hours after Pheobe was due at the airport at 8.30am. Tuesday May 21 Reports emerge that Pheobe may have had an argument while being given a lift to the airport and was 'kicked out' of the car. Wednesday May 22 Detectives sealed off Bromley and Wood's rented Gin Gin property, and officers in forensics gear could be seen poring over the house, just off the main road in the centre of town. They were also seen combing areas around Samuels Rd, including a search beyond the perimeter of a local dump. Bromley's Hyundai was also seized by police, with forensic experts examining it at a facility in Bundaberg. Pheobe's last posts to social media before her disappearance also came to light, including an eerie March post to TikTok where she described having a conversation with her younger self. She said she did not 'see nor talk' to her mother any more 'but it's better like this'. Pheobe also wrote that she had been 'in and out' of home for years, but 'this time we're not going back'. Thursday May 22 Daily Mail Australia identified that Wood and Bromley were the couple Pheobe had been living with at the Gin Gin house. 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German authorities have requested the four-day searches close to the ramshackle cottage Brueckner used to live at near to the holiday resort of Praia da Luz where Maddie vanished 18 years ago. Madeleine went missing on May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her family in the Algarve town of Praia da Luz, sparking a frenzied search and gaining the attention of the world's media. She has never been found, and German authorities said in June 2020 that she was assumed dead. Despite being named in 2020 as the prime suspect in the Maddie McCann case, Brueckner has still not been charged. Around 30 officers from Germany's FBI - the BKA - arrived in the area around 7.30pm yesterday after Portuguese colleagues sealed off dirt roads and erected blue tents by scrubland in preparation for today's operation. The major search, the first for more than two years in Portugal, will focus on wells, ruins, and water storage tanks on 21 plots of privately-owned land thought to cover around 120 acres. Fresh but relatively focused searches were ordered by Portuguese, British and German police of scrubland, wells and reservoirs in 2014, 2020 and 2023. None of these searches were confirmed to have yielded significant evidence. Brueckner, a German national, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the brutal rape of a 72-year-old American woman, Dianne Menkes in the Algarve in 2006, which he still contests. His sentence runs until September, meaning he is set for release unless prosecutors find enough evidence to charge him over Madeleine's disappearance. Speaking to German broadcaster RTL, Brueckner, said today he would likely travel to a country without an extradition treaty with Germany and go into hiding if released from prison. On January 17, Sky News quoted the German prosecutor investigating Madeleine's disappearance as saying there was currently no prospect of charges being brought against Brueckner.
