The search for two sisters who disappeared from Aberdeen last week continues, though police have said they have not found anything to suggest suspicious activity.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen by a CCTV camera on Aberdeen’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at around 2.12am on 7 January.
They were seen crossing the bridge and then turning right onto a footpath by the River Dee and were heading in the direction of the Aberdeen Boat Club.
Police have asked those in the area with CCTV cameras of their own to check their own footage in case it contains further sightings of the sisters.
The search is focused on the River Dee, with police divers spotted in the water on 12 January, while officers are also in contact with the women’s family in Hungary.
The investigation has discovered that the sisters, who had been saving up to buy a home, had left a message for their landlady saying that they planned to move out of the rented flat.
Police Superintendent David Howieson said on Tuesday: “There was an indication from the person from whom they rent a flat who had concerns that they left the flat and indicated they intended to move.”
However, Eliza and Henrietta’s family say that the sisters didn’t tell them about this, and speaking to the BBC, Eliza and Henrietta’s brother Jozsef said the family hadn’t been informed that the women would be ‘immediately’ moving out and that was ‘strange’.
He said: “We don’t understand this whole thing. That they wrote a message to their landlady, that they wanted to immediately end their tenancy agreement. We didn’t have any information about that.
“So that’s the strange thing, that the girls didn’t tell us anything about that. They never mentioned any such plan.
“Even when my mother spoke to them on the Saturday, they didn’t mention anything about it, that they had any plan to move out.”
Jozsef said his sisters weren’t in financial difficulty, while police have said their investigation hasn’t found anything to suggest a third party was involved in their disappearance.
Superintendent Howieson said: “We’re trying to remain open minded in terms of what the wider circumstances may have been.
“What we know is that the behaviour of the sisters in the morning on which they disappeared is very out of character.
“We don’t really understand why they seem to have left their home address and walked to this area in a fairly direct line before the CCTV footage of them is exhausted.
“One of our theories has to be that they’ve entered the water for reasons unknown, and that’s why so much of our search activity is focused on the river, the river bank, and the harbour itself, but we’re not ruling out the fact that they may have left this area by means that we haven’t identified yet.”
In their investigation police have not found anything that points towards ‘criminality or suspicious circumstances’, but officers are ‘extremely concerned’ about the women’s wellbeing and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Their family said in a statement: “This has been a very worrying and upsetting time for our family.
“We are really worried about Eliza and Henrietta and all we want is for them to be found.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0735 of January 7.
