Mystery continues over the disappearance of two sisters in Aberdeen but here are six moments which may lead to their discovery.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on Market Street at the Victoria Bridge over the River Dee at around 2.12am on Tuesday January 7.
They crossed the bridge and turned right on to a footpath next to the river heading towards Aberdeen Boat Club. Police said investigations into their disappearance have now confirmed both women, who were wearing rucksacks, were seen at the same bridge at around 2.50pm on Monday January 6.
Extensive searches have been carried out in recent days, with a police helicopter, dog branch and the marine unit among the specialist resources involved. Officers said there is nothing to suggest criminality or suspicious circumstances, and they renewed their appeal for information.
The two sisters appeared to be leading perfectly normal lives in Aberdeen and nothing has emerged which is unusual from their work and social lives but here is a list of six key details.
Sisters’ background
The two sisters, originally from Hungary, arrived in the UK six years ago and had been working in Aberdeen since then. Police have looked into their background but everything about it including their social life appeared to be perfectly normal.
Supt David Howieson told reporters: “Everything suggests that Eliza and Henrietta were well settled having been here many years. They were in secure and happy employment, they had a social life and friends here, and this is totally out of character, both in terms of the police enquiry and from what friends and family have said.”
Victoria Bridge
A key element in the police investigation has been the CCTV of the pair at Victoria Bridge in Aberdeen. The last CCTV footage shows the sisters walking over the River Dee at around 2.12am on Tuesday January 7 which formed part of the first appeal by police following their disappearance. And on Friday in an update police also confirmed that the women were seen at the same bridge at around 2.50pm the day before, on January 6. Police said that the pair spent around five minutes by Victoria Bridge and the river footpath but they “didn’t engage with anyone else.”
The statement from the police added: “After visiting the bridge, the sisters are then seen on CCTV making their way through the city centre, via the Union Square shopping centre, back to their flat in the Charlotte Street area of Aberdeen. There is nothing to indicate that Eliza or Henrietta left their flat again until shortly before they were last seen at the River Dee in the early hours.”
Mobile phone
We already knew that it was the landlady who had raised the alarm due to concern about Eliza and Henrietta but police have now clarified that she received a strange text message from Henrietta at 2.12am on January 7. She was told that they would not be returning and then the phone was switched off.
Police said: “A text message was sent from Henrietta’s mobile phone to their landlady at 2.12am on Tuesday, 7 January, 2025, from the area of Victoria Bridge, indicating they would not be returning to the flat. The phone was then disconnected from the network and has not been active since.
Supt Howieson earlier said inquiries uncovered “circumstances” that led to additional concerns about the welfare of the sisters. All of their possessions were found in the home. He stated: “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. So inquiries were carried out at the flat, and the circumstances that were found led to concern around their whereabouts, which was then important to the police.”
Screams heard by residents
There have been claims that Aberdeen residents heard screams around the time the pair are thought to have gone missing, although detectives don’t think anyone is involved in their disappearance and are not treating it as suspicious.
One resident told The Sun: “Everyone is talking about this. It was pretty scary stuff. A woman screaming out in the darkness is going to raise some red flags. But it’s not entirely clear what the noises were. No one has been able to establish whether or not they are definitely connected to the girls.”
Family shock
Strangely the sister’s brother, Jozsef, said the family were not aware of their decision to move out of their flat, despite he and his mother having spoken to them in the days and weeks prior to the disappearance. He added everything had seemed normal when they talked, and the two didn’t mention their decision to move out.
He told the BBC: “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.” He told the broadcaster the women had no financial difficulties and were saving up to buy their own property.
Jozsef said another detail of which his family were not aware was that Eliza and Henrietta only took one mobile phone the night they vanished. The family was not informed of the unusual move until it was announced by officers investigating the sisters’ movements.
The sisters’ family released a statement on Monday also appealing to anyone with any information to come forward. “This has been a very worrying and upsetting time for our family,” the statement read. “We are really worried about Eliza and Henrietta and all we want is for them to be found.”
The River Dee
Searches by police have centred around the River Dee and it remains their main theory that the sisters entered the water. Police are keeping an open mind about what happened to the sisters, but have said they have not found anything to suggest a third party was involved.
Mr Howieson said: “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.”
He continued: “I don’t want to speculate on likelihood, we are open minded, we have a theory which involves them entering the water as a potential, but we can’t rule out that the timeline continues on from that, but we haven’t established that through enquiries.”
He added that during their investigation, police have not found anything that pointed towards “criminality or suspicious circumstances”. He said they have the support of police in their home country, who are liaising with the wider family.
Supt Howieson added that police remain “extremely concerned” about the sisters and urged anyone with information about their whereabouts to contact police. Anyone with information is asked to contact scotland>Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0735 of Tuesday January 7.
