A British woman, believed to have been mauled to death by a pack of wild dogs in northern Greece, has been identified as Celia Lois Hollingworth.
Greek police investigating the incident confirmed the dismembered body of the 63-year-old Briton were found at the weekend.
“A shoe, bag, hat and passport were discovered by officers alerted to the woman’s disappearance by her brother Matthew,” a police spokesman, Theodoros Chronopoulos, told the Guardian.
“They were found near a sheep’s pen in the forested region of Kales in Rodopi. All the evidence would lead us to believe that she was savagely attacked.”
On Monday, neighbours of Hollingworth paid tribute to her, saying she was “always doing things for other people”. They described her as a “kind and friendly” woman who was active in her community.
“Celia was always very friendly. I’ve only lived here for a year but when we moved in she offered to store boxes for us,” said Andrew Otto, 54. “She told us she was going to Greece about five weeks ago. That was the last we heard from her. She didn’t give a lot away about herself but she was always active in the community and would often go round with petitions.”
Hollingworth was an active member of community groups in Bradford-on-Avon and Bath and a member of the Bristol Greece Solidarity campaign, supporting those struggling with austerity following the European financial crisis.
She was a member of Bristol Anti-Cuts Alliance and took part in a protest against the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, when he was due to speak at Bath University.
Another neighbour, 74-year-old Alan Clifford, added: “She was a quiet person, and always doing things for other people. There is a lot of people who you can say they were kind or friendly, but Celia had the works to prove it.”
Hollingworth, a human rights campaigner and the University and College Union representative at Bristol university, was last seen on the morning of 21 September when she was driven by taxi to view antiquities in Mesimvria in the Thrace region of northern Greece, close to the country’s border with Turkey.
“The dismembered body was found in a very remote area, one that would be difficult to walk, three to four kilometres away from the archaeological site,” Chronopoulos said. “The region is known to have wild dogs and wolves.”
He said officers had begun the search after being alerted by the British embassy in Athens about the woman’s disappearance.
“Her brother had informed a police station in Durham in the UK that she had disappeared, which informed the British embassy, which in turn informed us,” he added. “We have located the taxi driver who took her from the village of Maroneias to the site at around 11am on the 21st. She was never seen again.”
A coroner in the north-eastern city of Komotini will examine the remains to determine the cause of death.
“The investigation is still ongong,” Chronopoulos said. “This is a horrific incident, and the question we are all asking is how her body was found so far away from a site that was obviously visited by tourists.”
A Foreign Office (FCO) spokesman said: “We are in contact with Greek police in relation to a British woman missing in northern Greece since Thursday. We are also providing consular assistance to her family.”
The FCO would not confirm reports that the woman, a regular visitor to Greece, was a retired Oxford University professor. The woman was last seen by passersby on Thursday, according to local media reports.
