Hungarian sisters Henrietta and Eliza Huszti tragically disappeared in Aberdeen, Scotland, last month and their bodies were devastatingly found in a river weeks later
The cause of death of two sisters found in an Aberdeen river has been revealed.
Henrietta and Eliza Huszti, both 32, were last seen on January 7 before their bodies were found in the River Dee a few weeks later on January 31. Their cause of death has been confirmed as drowning and police say the deaths are not being treated as suspicious.
Coffee shop assistant Henrietta and hotel housekeeper Eliza went missing last month, with Police Scotland launching a huge manhunt, using national and local specialist police resources, including sniffer dogs, marine and dive units, and air support, to try to track them down.
Their last known sighting was on January 7 on the Victoria Bridge turning right onto a footpath next to the river. The sisters – who were two of three triplets from Hungary – had visited the same bridge the day before their disappearance. The same day, they had texted their landlady to say they would be moving out of their flat, a decision they hadn’t shared with relatives.
The first of the bodies was found on January 31 at the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, around half a mile from the Victoria Bridge – where the second body was found later that evening. Their third sister, Edit Huszti, revealed she spoke with both of them on New Year’s Eve. She said they seemed happy and cheerful during their conversation. It would prove to be the last time they ever spoke.
Their brother, Jozsef Huszti, told BBC News that their mother spoke to her daughters in a 40-minute conversation four days before they disappeared. He said that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Eliza and Henrietta are said to have been very close, doing most things together and saving up to buy their own home. The women arrived in the UK six years ago and had been working in Aberdeen since then. The family say Henrietta worked in a branch of Costa in the city.
Being out on the streets in the early hours of the morning was unusual behaviour for them, their family believed. Police say the twins’ landlady received a message at 2.12am saying they would not be returning to their flat, prompting her to call the police. She found the twins’ possessions at the property, with only one of their mobile phones taken with them. This mobile was switched off after the landlady was contacted.
A day before their disappearance, at 2:50pm on Monday, January 6, the sisters were spotted on CCTV visiting Victoria Bridge wearing rucksacks. They were later spotted walking back toward their flat on Charlotte Street. Then, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, they were again caught on camera at the bridge. This time, they spent five minutes on the footpath but did not engage with anyone else before seemingly vanishing.
“We don’t understand this whole thing,” brother Jozsef told the BBC. “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.”