Cyprus police on Monday confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the post-mortem examination on a 76-year-old British pensioner whose heart was allegedly missing upon repatriation was carried out on August 18, 2025.

The clarification came as British media reported that the man’s body had been returned to the UK without his heart, prompting a second investigation by a coroner in Rochdale.

Michael Graley, from Greater Manchester, had been holidaying in Paralimni with his family and reportedly died shortly after being admitted to Paralimni hospital.

According to his wife Yvonne, 73, a post-mortem examination was carried out in Cyprus, but British officials later noticed that the death certificate had been issued without a cause of death.

As a result, she said, a second examination was required by the coroner’s office in Rochdale.

That examination allegedly revealed that her husband’s heart was missing, leaving the coroner unable to determine a cause of death.

Yvonne told British media she was “in shock”, adding that Cypriot police had later informed her that her husband’s heart had been sent to a research facility.

Police told the Cyprus Mail that as part of the August 18 examination, some of the 76-year-old’s vital organs were removed and sent to a laboratory for toxicological and histopathological analysis.