A major breakthrough has emerged in the investigation into the disappearance of a 50-year-old Chinese real estate agent after authorities located a cellphone believed to belong to the missing woman, according to exclusive information obtained by the Greek newspaper Ta Nea.

According to the report, the woman’s husband was sent to the Department for Crime Investigation and Detection in Marousi, northern Athens to officially confirm that the recovered device belongs to his wife.

The cellphone was reportedly found in the possession of a foreign national in central Athens. The man allegedly told authorities that he had found the device and later sold it to a third party. Investigators were able to trace and seize the phone after obtaining authorization to access telecommunications data.

However, an initial examination revealed that the cellphone had been reset to its factory settings, erasing all of its stored data.

The device will now be sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ forensic laboratory, where specialists will attempt to recover the deleted information. Authorities believe the phone’s contacts, messages, photographs, and location history could provide critical evidence about the 50-year-old’s movements before she disappeared.

Yu Ting has been missing since May 20 from the coastal town of Artemida, east of Athens, and her disappearance remains one of Greece’s most perplexing unsolved cases in recent months.

Her husband, together with his lawyer, Tasos Dougkas, has been providing investigators with information about her professional and financial activities, placing particular emphasis on transactions she is believed to have carried out in central Athens.

Police are now examining whether the cellphone’s trail could prove to be the key to solving the case. Investigators believe the results of the forensic data recovery will shape the next stage of the inquiry and may ultimately reveal what happened to the missing real estate agent.