Laurence Dollimore
A MISSING Dutch expat has been located in Tenerife more than a week after he vanished following a trip to the hospital.
Fears were growing for Derk Jan van Dijk, 63, who has been living on the Spanish holiday island for many years and suffers from ‘serious’ health issues.
According to an appeal, he was admitted to a public hospital in El Mojon on February 23, and was last seen two days later on Avenida Juan Carlos I in Los Cristianos, in the south of the island.
But according to Missing Persons Tenerife, he was found yesterday in a ‘squalid, pitch-black basement’ in an area where he used to live.
Head of the organisation Deborah Clarke-Topper told the Olive Press: “He was in a squat in the area he used to live – an absolutely squalid basement, pitch black.
“He can’t walk and his phone had stopped working altogether. So he was stuck there unable to contact anybody.
“We waited until an ambulace came for him. I followed the ambulance in my car. He is in a hotel temporarily. I got him a new phone which his sister is covering the cost of.”
She added: “He is not injured, but he has health problems and currently cannot walk. He has not eaten much for a while. Hopefully with some support he can literally get back on his feet.”
The expat said that ‘an unknown man’ who was in the entrance of the property ‘denied that Derk was there’, adding: “But we went in anyway, with torches… he was glad to be found.”
