THE wife of a former Uefa director who went missing for two months said she burst into tears of relief when police told her he had been found.
Bernard Ross, the European football governing body’s former director of TV, was last seen near his Oxford home on October 18 and had not been in touch with his family since.
PA:Press Association
An international hunt was launched for the 51-year-old father-of-four, who was spotted on several occasions in France and Switzerland over the following weeks.
He was finally found in Chene-Bourg just outside Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Thames Valley Police said.
His wife Jacinta Ross, 51, said they had spoken after he had been found.
She said: “I am just overjoyed. I burst into tears when the police phoned and told me.
“Then I spoke to Bernie. It was lovely to hear his voice. We had a nice long chat, we couldn’t stop talking. I didn’t want to come off the phone.
“When he first went missing I was always asking the police when they phoned if he had been found. Then I stopped asking as there was never any news. Then I was too afraid to ask why they were phoning.
“I’m just absolutely delighted, it is brilliant news. I am still in shock but I am so relieved.”
PA:Press Association
Mrs Ross had appealed on a daily basis for help to find him and bring him home, approaching media organisations in a bid to spread the word far and wide and even encouraging her MP to raise the matter in Parliament to get assistance from the Government.
Just moments before she heard the news of his discovery, she had posted a video appeal online which was made by their daughter Matilda to help find him.
Mr Ross left his long-held position at Uefa in November last year.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in January and has since been in hospital frequently, Mrs Ross said.
Police initially believed he was travelling around the south of France on a fold-up bicycle.
Officers said he was in Marseilles on October 22 and then in Grasse, on the French Riviera, on October 31, before crossing the border to Switzerland.
He was last spotted on Friday, December 8, trying to deliver Christmas cards to directors at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon which begged for help, his wife Jacinta said.
PA:Press Association
In a message directed to her husband on Sunday, she said: “Bernie, we all miss you desperately. I understand. Please just come back and we can rebuild our lives.”
The 51-year-old is concerned his behaviour could become unpredictable without his daily dose of lithium to treat bipolar disorder.
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Mrs Ross said: “It’s essential he takes his medication every day.
“We think when he left he would have had about 28 days of medication with him, maybe more, so he will be running out soon if he has been taking it.
“He did a job he loved for 11 years and was very successful.
“He’s had an appalling year since January and was in and out of hospital.
“Shortly before he disappeared his treatment seemed to start working and I felt like I was beginning to get my husband back again.
“But with that came clarity.”
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