A British mother says she was “traumatised” when she found a rotting corpse during her morning run while on holiday in Menorca.
Emma Elliott, 39, from Hexham, Northumberland, vowed never to go to the beach again after the shocking discovery on May 17.
He was on a week-long break with his partner Lee Brogden, their seven-year-old son Bobby-Lee and their 17-year-old nephew Lee.
He had decided to go for a run on the Arenal d’en Castell beach when, five minutes later, he saw what he thought was a giant jellyfish washed up on the shore.
On closer inspection, he realized that it was not a sea creature, but rather a rotting corpse.
Police investigate Emma’s body found on the beach on the Spanish island of Menorca
Emma on the beach in front of the tribute left at the place where the body was found, with her partner Lee and their son Bobby-Lee
The family left a tribute at the place where the body was found, with a cross, a letter and a flower.
Stunned, Emma ran back to her hotel room to tearfully tell Lee, her machine operator partner, what she had found.
The couple, along with a hotel staff member, went to the beach and stuck a stick into the sand to prevent the body from drifting before Lee called the police.
Ever since she stumbled upon the wreckage, Emma said she has been suffering from panic attacks and nightmares every day and refuses to go to the beach alone again.
She said: ‘It happened on the fifth day of our vacation. Until then we had a great time.
“We went to the beach, to the pedalos and to the discos at night.”
Waking up early, Emma wanted to use the hotel gym. But seeing that it was closed, she decided to take a walk in the beautiful marina, about five minutes away.
She said: ‘I had jogged halfway across the marina and thought about turning around as the sea was a bit rough but decided to continue as it seemed safe to do so.
‘Four steps later, I looked to my right and there was a dead body lying on the beach.
“I had to look about three times before I realized it was a body. At first I thought it was a jellyfish because it was so transparent.
‘[You could see] where he had been struggling to catch his breath underwater. She could see all of her face and his body.
‘In the lower half of his legs, I could see his bones and they were all sticking out in the opposite direction.
“Her arms were also turned the other way, but her full face was there and I can’t get the image out of my head.” Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
He added that “her lower half was completely decomposed, but her upper half was not, so I could still make out her face and body.”
He still had the nipples, for example. It’s stupid things you look at like that when things like that happen.
She said she couldn’t see anyone else on the beach and ran back to the hotel, where she found her partner.
“I was so scared that I kept repeating ‘corpse, corpse.’
“I was crying from shock at first and couldn’t catch my breath when I first encountered it.”
Emma wrote to the man who seemed to have drowned a letter, left as a tribute on the beach.
Emma said that after running back to her hotel room, she and Lee, along with a manager, went to the beach and later reported the discovery to police.
He said that the Spanish police took a statement.
‘They promised to tell me who the man was and where he was from, they haven’t told me yet, so I haven’t been able to calm down.
‘I need to know this to close. It’s not something you see every day and the man was seriously decomposing.
She said she was ‘traumatized’ by what she discovered on the beach and said it ruined the rest of her £1,650 family holiday.
Emma said: “After finding the body on vacation, I was depressed all the time and couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
“I was having really bad panic attacks and it seems like I have more and more.
‘Perhaps this is because the shock of what happened has worn off.
‘I still have panic attacks now and the doctors have had to put me on sleeping pills.
“I keep having nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night.
“My partner also had to see the corpse and he can’t sleep well either.
‘I’m not eating very well at the moment and I could barely eat on vacation because I was feeling sick.
‘We booked the holiday through Jet2. Initially they offered me counseling and I had a trauma counseling session over the holidays.
I’m a little traumatized by what happened.
Before flying home on May 19, Emma revisited the beach with her family to leave flowers and a note to personally close the incident.
Despite returning to the Arenal d’en Castell beach to pay her respects, she said she won’t be out running or on the beach alone any time soon.
Emma said: “After finding the body, I didn’t go back to the beach for the rest of the vacation.”
“The only time I came back was on the last day with Lee and my son.
“No one had put up flowers, so we went out and bought some and wrote a little note to put on the beach.”
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear of Ms Elliot’s experience.
“We can confirm that our teams were in regular contact with Ms Elliot during her stay and did everything they could to support her, including putting her in touch with our counseling support service.”
The Guardia Civil, the local police force, has been contacted for comment.
I am Rakesh Sharma, I associated with Elite News as an Editor, since 2021. I take care of all the news operations like content, budget, hiring and policy making.