“Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure. You are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure…” – the family of missing boxing promoter Michael Graydon respond to reports suggesting that a body found in Monaco is that of the 29-year-old father of one from Bristol.
A principality-wide search for Graydon may have come to an end earlier today, Friday, as a passer-by discovered a body deep inside a ravine in Monaco, according to the BBC.
Graydon has been missing for two weeks. The promoter had flown out to the French Rivieira to show support for Bristol boxer Lee Haskins, who was competing on the undercard of the middleweight title fight contested between champion Gennady Golovkin and challenger Martin Murray.
However, concerns grew after Graydon did not turn up to the event and failed to catch his return flight home.
Graydon and friend Adrian O’Connor arrived in Nice on Thursday, February 19 and the former was allegedly involved in a skirmish “with men in cars” who were described as “local” yet returned to his hotel room safely at 05:00 the following morning.
Later on the Friday, the pair traveled into Monaco, stopped off at their hotel – the Marriott, Cap d’Ail – and then visited La Rascasse, a nightclub in Port Hercule.
At 01:30 on the Saturday morning, Graydon reportedly got into an altercation in the toilets and was last seen six minutes later running away from La Rascasse.
At 19:00 on Sunday, February 22, Graydon’s family began to increase awareness that he was missing and his mother, Jane, and fiance Kira Billiau flew to Monaco.
Police divers searched the Port Hercule area for his body but it did not yield any leads and thanks to the campaign efforts of the Graydon family, the story began to feature more prominently at a national level in France.
On March 5, a bloodhound sniffer dog tracked Graydon’s last movements but the scent was lost near a church and it was assumed he may have continued his movements in car, rather than on foot.
Today, reports imply that the body found in the ravine – near the church – is Graydon’s. His death is being treated as “accidental“.
Graydon’s family posted the following message on Facebook: “From the family and friends of Michael, thank you for the support and messages over the last weeks. It meant so much…”
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