Mother's plea: Why haven't Italian police analysed missing son's phone?

Cristina Pittalis speaks to Robert Murphy two months after Michael was last seen

The mother of a man missing in Sardinia has called for the police to analyse his mobile phone and laptop.

Michael Frison, who is a 25-year-old lifeguard from Chard in Somerset vanished on the Italian island on 12th July.

Since then, Cristina Pittalis has spent weeks in 40-degree temperatures hunting for any sign of him, without luck.

Michael had travelled to Sardinia to visit his grandparents. But when he was there, he met a British woman with whom he had previously connected online.

They travelled to a remote shack in the north of the island. Hours later, he went for a walk and vanished.

He was wearing a pair of shorts and left behind his phone, laptop and all his clothes and documents.

He disappeared in "alarming circumstances", Cristina told ITV News. "I wouldn't have been so worried because I trust him. I trusted he would have been able to look after himself. I'm worried because it's totally out of character."

Cristina flew to Sardinia and found his electronic devices. She managed to access his email account and found what she describes as "disturbing" exchanges.

She handed these to the police for investigation but she believes investigators have so far failed to properly analyse the phone and laptop.

"I really hope to find Michael alive. But I cannot hide that my hopes are not strong anymore", she said.

ITV West Country has seen copies of the email exchanges but is not reporting them for legal reasons. ITV West Country has also contacted the Italian police for comment, but the force has failed to reply to our calls.

In the meantime, Cristina has been running a one-woman hunt for Michael.

Every day since mid-July she has been scouring the north Sardinian countryside, following up leads which have so far failed to produce anything.

"I had very little sleep at night. And then I was out from about 6:00 in the morning until night, until I couldn't really go on anymore", she said.

Michael disappeared weeks after the high-profile searches for Jay Slater on Tenerife and Michael Mosley in Greece. Yet, Michael Frison's vanishing has caused few headlines in the British press.

Cristina's friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help with Cristina's search.