Huntley's mother arrives in hospital to identify body

Gareth David Huntley's mother Janet Southwell arrived at the Forensics Department of the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital (HTAA) at 11am Thursday to identify the body of a man found in Kampung Juara, Pulau Tioman at midday on Wednesday.

Southwell arrived from Pulau Tioman in a helicopter accompanied by Karen Song, the vice consul at the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, and Huntley's girlfriend, Kit Natariga Panyawatcharakun.

The body had been flown from Pulau Tioman to HTAA at around 1am by helicopter.

A post-mortem is being carried out to determine if the body is indeed that of Huntley who went missing after going on a trek in Pulau Tioman eight days ago.

The body was found by a riverbank, just about 500 metres from the chalet where Huntley was staying at the Kampung Juara Turtle Conservation Centre in Pulau Tioman.

Huntley who was volunteer at the centre was reported missing on May 27 while allegedly making a trek to the Lubuk Teja waterfalls on the island alone.

A massive search operation involving 157 policemen, civil defence personnel and from other agencies was mounted to find him.